Prompt: A special tree in my life:
The White Birch Makes My Soul Sing With Joy
There were many Paper Birch trees scattered throughout my forest home. The black markings drew my eyes like a magnet. Arrow-shaped leaves swayed in the slightest breeze. Supple trunks bent with strong winds instead of resisting their force.
When storms passed, they’d snap upright again. I would shinny up their trunk until it couldn’t hold my weight. Then return to the earth as it swung me gently down. They showed me how to be resilient when encountering my own life’s storms.
Birds loved to feast on hanging catkins in the spring. The branches delighted me in the fall as the leaves turned yellow. What a sight when mixed in with the reds and oranges of other deciduous trees.
Clumps of white birch inhabit the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. They grew in the forest around our family cabin on Snowbank Lake. This tree is a symbol of the Northwoods. It is native to Alaska, Canada, and the northern States of America.
It can grow as a lone specimen or in clumps of many. The tree gets its name from the thin white bark which peels from the trunk. It is also known as the Canoe Birch or White Birch. Throughout history it has made useful products from footwear to birch-bark canoes.
