I’ve delayed posting this tree because the text is about aging and the leave taking of death. One of Shakespeare’s sonnets and my comments below it both anticipate saying our final earthly good-byes. But, it is 96/100+ Trees, next in line to publish—
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see’st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
Sonnet 73 William Shakespeare
I love this sonnet—it so fits this tree—and a facet of me—but not all. I don’t see any black night coming. I see sunset as the start of a new day and leaving this life as entering the glories of Heaven. As my body ages, I want to exchange fires dying on the ashes of youth for eternal flames, rising from the coals of love for Jesus. I want them to rise higher, brighter, hotter and cleaner as my earth-time grows shorter. But I do hope and pray that those who love me will love me more strong, not with holding on, but with knowing that love is forever and that in Jesus our partings can brief. I do hope that all I love so dearly now will know that our leave taking need not be a permanent good-bye—but an “Until we meet again.”
