{"id":5618,"date":"2019-02-10T18:12:04","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T00:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/?p=5618"},"modified":"2019-02-22T17:37:20","modified_gmt":"2019-02-22T23:37:20","slug":"i-was-given-to-see-the-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/2019\/02\/10\/i-was-given-to-see-the-trees\/","title":{"rendered":"I Was Given \u2014 to See \u2014 the Trees"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

PLATE 1.<\/b> Dogwood blossoms, Taney County, Missouri (March 31, 2009).<\/b><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

I Was Given \u2014 to See \u2014 the Trees<\/h1>\n

by Jim Barrett (FROM MY BOOK OF WORD PICTURES)<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I found myself in a primordial forest of gigantic white oak trees on an Ozark mountaintop ridge line \u2013 and I knew that I was looking at the very hands of the Earth \u2013 reaching up slender, loving, green fingers – to touch the face of God.<\/p>\n

In the dead of winter I looked upon the fantastic black lace along the top of an Ozark Mountain ridge \u2013 created by a leafless forest \u2013 sketched sharply against the brilliant electric blue of the late Winter\u2019s evening sky.<\/p>\n

Yes, there surely is a God.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5606″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_separator][vc_column_text]I sat for a long while, staring at this particular tree, this stunted, twisted, gnarled old cedar bush of a thing. What has fed it as it has clung to these barren rocks for countless years, battered by nearly two centuries of storms and blistering suns? What does it do to quench its summer thirst? This fantastically tough old creation.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5607″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_separator][vc_column_text]I rested upon the great sun warmed rock \u2013 where all about lay the glistening snows. And I saw the redbird actors gaily performing \u2013 before the huge, green cedar-tree backdrop \u2013 in the silence of the wintertime theater along Table Rock\u2019s quiet shore.<\/p>\n

A lonely sentinel \u2013 grand, old and battered by countless years of Ozark weather \u2013 still standing massive and so tall \u2013 proud, close by the small rivulet of its long ago tiny, green-seed birth \u2013 waiting for the first blow of the ax and the saws of those who had now come to bring it down. Farewell, my dear old forest friend, farewell.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5608″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_separator][vc_column_text]I leaned my breast against the giant old oak tree, my fingers twisted deep into its heavy bark \u2013 my ear pressed close against it, listening, deeply listening. As the wind twisted its limbs and distorted its giant trunk \u2013 I fancied that I heard tales of all that had passed this way in this old tree-man\u2019s countless years \u2013 and it was grand, amazing – with storied scope and myriad colors almost beyond imagining.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5609″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_separator][vc_column_text]I looked at the summer world through the windshield of my old truck. There stood the new, glaringly naked bluffs along 13 Highway. Great high slopes of barren orange clay and broken flint rock. There where used to live thick green stands of native oaks, old cedar trees, tall plumed grasses and a myriad array of wonderful, tall, ornamental trees donated by the Herschends and arduously planted by the young men of Lives Under Construction, years and years ago.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5610″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_separator][vc_column_text]I remembered how, each spring, I looked through this same windshield to marvel at the joy of seeing countless Ozark redbuds – and the earliest hark of spring, the flowering dogwoods. Then, come the fall, there would be oh so many hard maples and other ornamentals turning flaming red and gold, scattered across the backdrop of evergreen cedar trees.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5611″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_separator][vc_column_text]Such heart gladdening pictures of natural beauty to warm one\u2019s very soul. Yes, I suppose there had to be this progress, but oh my, what a serious sacrifice of twice annual natural beauty we have now made \u2013 for this pedestrian gain.<\/p>\n

Now \u2013 will we all forget the Lives Under Construction-inspired beauty?<\/p>\n

Originally MARCH 4, 2014[\/vc_column_text][vc_text_separator title=”Story Credits”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Story by Jim Barnett. Photos by Joshua Heston.<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] PLATE 1. Dogwood blossoms, Taney County, Missouri (March 31, 2009). [\/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_column_text] I Was Given \u2014 to See \u2014 the Trees by Jim Barrett (FROM MY BOOK OF WORD PICTURES) I found myself in a primordial forest of gigantic white oak trees on an Ozark mountaintop ridge line \u2013 and I knew that I was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1036,937,582,581,905],"tags":[904,902,903],"class_list":["post-5618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ozarktrees","category-ozarkwriters","category-sotoarchive","category-sotofeature","category-sotonaturalheritage","tag-god","tag-jim-barrett","tag-ozark-mountain","category-1036","category-937","category-582","category-581","category-905","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5618"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5630,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5618\/revisions\/5630"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}