Trees

I was watching The Travel Channel the other day, which for me provides both tremendous excitement and despair. Excitement that there is so much this world has to offer, to experience - and so many things that can alter and enrich me in simple and complicated ways, perhaps even at the same time. The despair seeps in because I cannot help but want to be doing and experiencing these wondrous places, and instead I am unable to see or touch them because I am firmly stuck here.

I am reminded me of a political science class I took in college in which the teacher had representatives from each of the geographical regions of the country draw a tree on the board. Being the Pacific Northwest spokesperson I drew a doug fir - a Christmas tree. We had all drawn different trees and illustrated her point about different perceptions and understandings of things often seen as the same or universal. A tree is a tree. Except it's not the same if you're from the South or New England.

Whenever I am in a foreign country I always notice the trees and they seem to be a marker that tells me that I have arrived and the way I think and understand things will be altered as a result of what I will experience. The first time I remember thinking this was in a cab driving from the airport into Melbourne, Australia. I saw an Australian tree. A real eucalyptus tree. The same thing happened in Cameroon with the mythical African trees. When this happens my chest seems to swell and I am aware of my breathing. The best part, though, is that I notice that I am deeply happy.