My mother believed in tree spirits. She would wrap her arms around trees to hug them. When my daughter was an infant, my mother had us place her inside a baby backpack and we watched as my mother walked into a grove of tall trees, saying, “I want to introduce my grand daughter to the trees.”
My daughter has baby girl now. This little one has a middle name in honor of a tree. That name is Aspen.
These days it is tradition to ask grandparents what they want to be called. I chose Grama Willow.
When I met my grand daughter soon after she was born, she gazed up at me and instantly I knew that the Aspen and Willow spirits are strong between us.
Her world is not going to be like mine.
I will need to learn it.
Willow Meets Aspen