Remember Those Trees?

Remember those trees that used to line our drive?

So stately and tall.

Even after January's ice storm I thought they were a beautiful sight.

Maybe it's was hearing them rustle gently in the breeze or their beauty when it was windy and wild.  I loved those trees.  They were a part of my world and I felt like they belonged to me.

But sadly, they didn't belong to me.  They belonged to our neighbor.  And the neighbor didn't feel about them as I did.

In May the neighbor paid us a visit.  He told us the trees that lined our drive had become ugly and were too damaged by the storm to be left standing.  They needed to come down.

And down they came.

It was painful to look at where the trees once stood.

I missed hearing the birds singing in them when I woke in the morning or hearing the breeze whisper through them when I went to sleep at night.  I reminded myself they weren't mine, they never were and I sadly adapted to their loss.

Yet, ever so quietly leaves began to appear on the ugly stumps.  Initially I chose to not pay attention to the little green leaves.  "Silly leaves", I told myself.  "Means nothing."

Yet with strength and dignity of a Survivor the leaves continued to appear.  I started to grin whenever I walked past them.  "Come on trees - you can do it!!" I told them.

And just as if they heard me, they continued to grow until they are now taller than I am.  The birds have returned to sing in their branches and the trees proudly rustle their leaves in the breeze. 

Remember those trees?  They are back.