My
friend Bill is gathering greenery in the backwoods near his home, in
preparation for the holidays that will all too soon be upon us. This is a
pleasant tradition – to secure boughs of cedar and arbor vitae, binding them in
series, either in a circle as a wreath or as one length to use as garland atop
the mantle.
We have
a couple of weeks yet before we too trek to the lower woods to search for a
suitable Christmas tree. This initial foray will be to locate a few good
candidates, and we will then return in another week with a hand saw and truss
to pull it out.
Of
course we could simply purchase a tree like most tend to do. Even now there are
some to be bought in front of the hardware store in Holden, and in another week
we will increasingly see evergreens tied down to the rooftops of cars, being
transported to homes all about. These are the farm-raised trees, grown just so
and shaped for aesthetics, in my mind almost as artificial as the synthetic
trees for sale.
Our
tree will fall short of these store bought specimens. It will lack by
comparison in shape and size, yet I would have it no other way. We locate and
cut and haul our own to celebrate the tradition of bringing the living greenery
within our home, which is ultimately the connection that we wish in these holy
days to come.
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