My dear favorite tree to climb!
How long it has been! More than half a century, to be more or less exact. Exactitude, as you must know better than any human, seeing as you are a tree, falls by the wayside as we age. But one thing is undeniably true, you and I were once very close, almost as one at times.
I remember that I had to gather all my strength to jump high enough to grab onto your lowest branch, heave my right leg over that branch, and somehow (I can’t imagine how I did this next step now) twist my then-much-smaller body on top of that branch. Almost daily, I would head over to your place, just a few steps from mine, and ascend into your heady heights. Things that happened on the ground were kind of scary in those days, and you gave me a place to both hide, and to be more fully me. How I've missed you!
I was so excited about writing to you today that I couldn’t sleep last night. I imagined all I would tell you, about my schooling years, my career years, my breeding years, and now my retirement years. In the light of morning, and in the twilight of my life (as you can see, I can still be a bit corny), those don’t seem important to me. I know that you, in your tree connection with all things, probably already know all this anyway.
Don’t think for a moment that I have forgotten you! One of my earliest posts on a blog of mine was about you. It was an entry for a 50 word story contest, and is a story that I am still especially proud of. The story, like you, made me feel like a winner. Here is the post, should you have some way to connect with the virtual world (I know you have those powers if you are reading this email), but I would like to reproduce it for you here:
The child gripped the tree’s fattest branch, heaved one leg over, and scrambled up.
She climbed until she had to listen carefully for cracking sounds from the thinner branches, and to press her body to the tree’s trunk.
The treetop bowed with every breeze or shift of her weight.
Safe.
Here’s some great news – I’m moving back there! Not to the house that is right next to you, but very nearby, near enough for me to visit you regularly. I will stand under your branches again my dear friend, and re-imagine the joy and sense of safety you gave me way back when.
We will rejoice together again very soon!
Much love,
Your All Time Champion, Even 
This is my entry to 
I don't have a photo of the tree, but I remember that it was a Douglas Fir. It was also on top of a large hill, the hill I grew up on, so the image is not that far off.
Thanks so much for reading!
This contest is right up 
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