Like the song in the video : “I had wanted it to last…”

But summer, like childhood, won’t last for ever. Enjoy those special moments while you have them…

“Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.” ~Bruce Lee

I remember the willow:

I remember a favorite old willow tree that stood guard outside my bedroom window at our summer cottage.  I used to play in bed every morning, with the branch shadows skipping along the old white wallpaper that I peeled at night before falling asleep.

As the morning light flickered, the shadows danced like a butterfly wanting to rest on a Buddleia davidii, perennial. I’d cup my hands together and use them like a net, pretending to capture and set free the colorful spring insects. This would amuse me until we were called to the breakfast table or until my big sister woke up and teased me, replacing her “good morning lil’ sis” with her preferred greeting; “What a weirdo.”

Ah, those were the good ol’ days!

I was only 5 and I believed the willow tree was magical. I used to talk to it through my window screen at night and in the hot summer sun, I’d find relief in the shade it provided. Under the willow tree, I’d make forts constructed with lawn chairs and beach towels and dance in circles with my favorite doll for hours.

To this day I still love willow trees.

Not just because it contains the properties to soothe a mother’s headache (salicylic acid, the precursor to aspirin) or the fact I had fun whacking one of my little brothers with a fallen branch after a thunderstorm, but because it reminds me of childhood and all those memories of playing under it’s welcoming arms, in the backyard of my family’s cottage. It reminds me of hoola- hoops and roasting marshmallows,  listening to bedtime once upon a time fairy tales. It was a time when I needed a nightlight because I was convinced a real dragon lived under my bed and I thought life always had happily ever after endings.

Bend; Don’t Break

As an adult, the willow tree holds new meaning. It symbolizes strength. Just look at it’s roots. It has a remarkable strength and ability to “hold on tight” through nature’s storms. I think of the willow tree when my life gets stormy, especially when I’m going through a tough time with my son’s health. It’s at these times I have to remind myself  of that old willow tree from the garden of my childhood.

I think about the willow, it’s strength and how it bends during a storm, never breaking. But that isn’t always easy to do. Parents raising children suffering from disease or disability know how hard it can be to bend and not break; and yet somehow we manage to do just that.

Do you remember the tale?

Do you remember the fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson, called Under The Willow Tree ? Like the two characters, we played under the willow tree in our youth, but those happy days didn’t last forever. Like Knud, the main character, we grew up and had to deal with disappointment, loss and unfulfilled dreams.

Like Knud, we travel along and have moments where we feel “… as if the world had slid out of its course…” but like Knud is reminded by his childhood love in the tale; we too have “strength to bear a great deal, if we only strive ourselves to endure…if we try to do our best…”

When you raise a child with a disability or illness, that is all you can do; try to do your best.

Like Knud, sometimes we can feel like the knapsack we’re carrying “presses hard against our chest, making it hard to breath..” and we grow weary of the journey and may carry a heavy heart. Knud longed for the day he’d see the Alps, and the day did finally come. “At last ” thought he, “the earth will unfold its great wings, and soar upwards to the skies, there to burst like a soap-bubble in the radiant glance of the Deity.”

We may never climb Zugspitz, but sooner or later, we know the wind storm has to die down.When we reach a resting spot after a tough period of drama we’re given the chance to catch our breath to regain balance; Just like the willow tree after a summer storm; just like Knud after reaching Bavaria. Our life may not begin with a  “Once Upon a Time” but when we get the chance to slow down and breathe; we need to take it in and

Savor it while it lasts.

Hans Christian Anderson told us in his fairytale to do just that, but under a willow tree. He said:

“Ah, under that willow-tree!”

A man may live a whole life in one single hour.”

~Excerpt taken from Under The Willow Tree (Hans Christian Anderson, 1853)

“A willow-tree grew by the roadside, everything reminded him of home. He felt very tired; so he sat down under the tree, and very soon began to nod, then his eyes closed in sleep. Yet still he seemed conscious that the willow-tree was stretching its branches over him; in his dreaming state the tree appeared like a strong, old man—the “willow-father” himself, who had taken his tired son up in his arms to carry him back to the land of home, to the garden of his childhood.”

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