i’m sitting out in the backyard today. this has become my morning ritual since the weather has warmed a bit. i love it. it grounds me. connects me with nature. i am alone back here but i feel less alone here than i do in an office full of people. sometimes, if i think no one is watching, i lay down on the grass and look up through the canopy of trees.

wow, these trees look like bunches of kale!

the birdsong alternates between an almost annoying bickering chorus and a singular, mournful sigh. the slate gray tiles that were laid down to make the patio are rumpled and disheveled courtesy of the giant redwood tree’s roots snaking beneath the surface.

i have a secret love affair with that tree. again, if i think no one is watching, i’ll hug her.

hi, my name is Margaux, and i’m a tree hugger.

i want to be like this tree when i grow up. she is firmly rooted, and she winds her roots deeper into the earth with each passing day. her branches dance in the sky and every spring she gets a brand new green sequinned party dress (a full skirt that makes her large trunk look very slim).

if the neighbors are out tending their gardens or pulling their laundry off the line, i’ll just reach out and lay my palm against her trunk. just to be sure of you, as Pooh might say.

fortitude through osmosis, i am hoping. and a brand new party dress would be good too.