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How quickly a year can pass, even if individual days seem long.
Neither the word “time” nor its meaning says anything to a tree. Something I wish were true for Yours Truly.

Old Man River Birch June 2013
Cognizance of existence, the passage of time, the end of (my) time weighs heavily on my mind sometimes.

July 2013
I try not to let the limited number of seconds I have on this planet keep me from enjoying the ones I have, but it is a difficult task for one who is always chased by Eliot’s Shadow.

August 2013
Then there are the trees. And of all the trees in all of time and all of existence, this one is my favorite, if there can be only one favorite – and I think “favorite” is an absolute, is it not?

September 2013
Absolutes cannot be qualified. Not by “least,” and not by “most.” Not by any qualifier. That’s why they’re absolute. Unlike Yours Truly, who really doesn’t believe in absolutes. Unless it’s the absolute tree.

October 2013
This magnificent being I call my favorite is is a river birch, though I live on a bayou near a lake
and not near a river at all.

November 2013
But old Mr. River Birch resides near water, nevertheless, and I don’t think he cares that the moniker we humans have assigned to him refers to a specific type of water, near which he does not reside.

December 2013
Water is water, and trees are trees. No, not really. Not at all. Not if you believe in the absolute, and I do, if it’s a tree. Which seems to contradict all that I have previously written, but doesn’t if you understand. Believe me when I tell you that I do not understand.

January 2014
Look at the majesty of this tree, this river birch. It is not just any tree, any more than that child is just any child or this planet just any planet.

February 2014
You see, Gentle Reader? Do you see? What do you see, if anything? Tell me, I must know, for I am of the ilk who never knows what others see, and if I do, I do not understand.

March 2014
So, tell me. Do.

April 2014
And while you ponder what you will tell me that you see, see my tree.

May 2014
For though I share my thoughts and images of him, he belongs only to me. Absolutely.

June 2014
Only to me, unless you see. And if you do, he belongs to you, too. This I understand.