I grew up in a big busy city, but always lived in neighbourhoods that had parks and playgrounds with trees nearby. When I was in my teens, I enjoyed sitting under a huge old tree in a park close to my home. I would go there when I needed to escape my family for a while, with a book to read or a notebook to write in. During those years, I spent so much time sitting under that tree, it’s a miracle I didn’t sprout roots or branches of my own. The cover of that tree’s branches became my personal time-out place. It became a place I went to when I felt any jumble of upsetting emotions, and I always walked away feeling calmer.
I don’t know if that tree is still standing in the grassy green field of that park. If it is, I hope others have benefited from the cover of its branches, and still do, the way I did.


