discovering the known other realm

This is an ode to all the trees that have ever been overlooked in our travels.

We fly, we ride and we drive by the most silent yet inwardly vocal entities ever – trees. I never knew how trees could determine where I wanted to live until a recent trip to Gainesville, Florida made me see how viewing such a sentient organism could be the height of my travels. Delighting in the dewy gloss of leaves wet from a previous rain, my trek “down into the delta” became “other-worldly.” I was an alien, preparing to visit the University of Florida in Gainesville where I was contemplating if Levin College of Law was the place that I want to go to obtain my juris doctorate degree. All I could think about was rigidness and wood; the death of a living thing being encased in what used to be more than just paper bounded to the edges of what used to be familiar to the earth. I was nervous and I was reluctant.

But then I saw the trees.

Somehow, the law school didn’t dominate that space. I was greeted by the most awesome community of trees that I have ever witnessed in my life. Maybe it was the time of morning, or the conditions of the day or just the hue of my mind; I really don’t know what gave me the feeling of having arrived to a special destination but all I knew in that moment is that I was where I wanted to be. The law school was perfectly nestled in an illustrious grove of palm and seagrape trees, red cedars and sycamores. There were trees with wide, winding branches that looked like arms that just continued to stretch and stretch and stretch, maybe to welcome me. That’s what it felt like though, a reception. I hardly even noticed there was very little sunshine because I felt so much light retained through photosynthesis and it reflected heavily in the leaves of the trees. Yeah, I went to some restaurants and yeah, I went to a spot where college kids were enjoying the weekend but for some reason I felt like we were all drawn to that little town for the comfort of the trees. Who would have ever thought that a prestigious law school would be so naturally contained in this brush, this forest, this enchanted place that reminded me of Fern Gully, a Disney movie from way back in the day. I felt like the people had hints of green in their faces from being in the shade of the trees for so long. This big reveal set the stage for the next phase of my life as the trees said to me:

“To our little wandering soul, whole-brained and never lacking a thought – welcome home.”