The afternoon couldn’t have been more perfect for a lonely study date under the big oak she was all too familiar with. The weather was perfect, and her views pulchritudinous, with nothing for miles on end. As for the tree, its branches needed a good trimming, but all the way up its massive trunk the whole tree felt the presence of fall. The vibrant leaves hanging from the branches screamed its excitement for the change of weather to the entire world. In her mind she could already see those sturdy branches weighed down by the coming winter precipitation.

It wasn’t long before her homework was tossed aside and she found herself displaying her artistic abilities on the rounded sides of the giant deciduous. Her fingers brushed atop the many carvings she had etched in its massive trunk. It was a wonder the tree hadn’t died from this harmful pastime.

   A rainy afternoon greeted the newlyweds as they transferred their life, piece by piece, from the back of an old truck to the house where they had agreed to plant their hopes and dreams. The young groom admired his new property. Number one on his to do list: cut down the dead oak. What a shame. Had the massive tree been alive, it could have filled the shoddy yard with shade and color, infecting the new family with its happy glow.

Marriage wisped the new couple from their juvenile lives in a way they hadn’t expected. Every night before his expansive dreams swept him away from his worldly troubles, the aging groom found himself gazing at the bothersome oak he should have cut down many moons ago had he not been caught up in his premature life. However the day never came for him to cut down the tree, and the happy couple was no more than a memory.

   The young driver awoke to sirens and flashing lights. All she could see was the trunk of a large tree with pictures carved all around it. All she wanted was to be rescued from her punctured automobile, but the pitiful scene with the dead oak and the dilapidated house surrounded by a shoddy yard was the last she would ever know.

   Axe in hand, a discontented teenage boy pondered on the adventures he might be revelling in had he not been burdened with the task of chopping down a pesky, old oak. Without giving it a second glance the boy swung at the tree, and with every blow from the murderous axe, a story cascaded out of the elderly tree. Stories from the day its seeds were poured into the very soil its roots still found themselves surrounded by, to that very second. For, although the tree hadn’t travelled an inch its entire existence, it still witnessed and affected more than some who travel the entire globe. With one final stretch, the tree tipped to the earth below. You may think this is the end of the giant, old oak, but after being chopped to pieces, that very same tree was sent every which way, all around the globe, to be built and burned and carved. This tree has many more sunrises and sunsets left to admire than you and I.