I decided to accept one of the writing challenges listed on my son’s “Thursday Thirteen” on his journaling blog. The challenge is to write about a tree without using any color. This writing is off the top of my head and isn’t edited.

A tree is an object that offers many privileges to those in its proximity. Its rough outer skin is a protective haven for small bugs who burrow deeper to take advantage of the tree’s irregular exterior. That exterior also provides a home for other animals as well. Woodpeckers use their sharp beaks like drills to bore holes in the hard wood large enough to use as shelters. Butterflies rest on the bark, camoflauged from their predators.

Squirrels scamper in the long, arm-like branches that wave overhead, playing chase with each other like children. Even spiders like to use the tree limbs and strong leaves as a background for their intricate masterpieces of woven architecture. The long-standing tree allows others to inhabit its branches. When the time is right, as only God-given instinct can determine, birds begin to build up their nests within its arms by using any piece of fiber available. The tree shelters and protects the nest even after the birdlets have hatched and matured into flight. Its arms are always open to host travelers looking for a place to rest.

Sometimes the tree arms are bare. There is no covering above the towering trunk, and the tree powers down to sleep, almost appearing to be drooping and dead. But before spring comes, little knobs protrude in knotty places on the branches. Seemingly overnight buds bloom into a thick mantle, and the tree stands tall and reaches for the sky. The healthy, pliable, but strong leaves cling to the branches for dear life. Sometimes they stand up straight; other times they hang down, rustling softly like wind chimes in the breeze. They are very strong, yet are so flexible they can lay on their backs and surf in the wind without relinquishing their clutch. Their strong fiber filters the light of the sun, encouraging shadows to chase each other beneath the arms of the great tree. They also filter the sun’s heat, offering to the community passing by a place to rest free from the glare of the sun.

A tree knows its own importance and protects itself by digging roots deep into the soil. As long as the tree is healthy, it won’t release its grip unless God sends a force stronger than itself. As it grows taller, it also grows wider to balance itself. As it adds fiber to its trunk, its strength increases as well as its girth. The tree’s yield of leaves helps sustain our own precious lives by adding oxygen to our air.