Yet another photo of my favorite tree…

The inexplicable shadows that animate this creature always are most apparent when it holds its limbs high in feeble defiance of the penetrating sun.  Even as I hide below in what shelter it offers, I see it weakening beneath simmering heat and piercing light that threatens to consume us both.  Sweat forms on my brow as the star’s essence laps at us with burning tongues of fire.  With my hand held high to shield my eyes, the great tree strains against its own weight and the unwinnable fight brought to us by a relentless foe.  Finally, as rays of stinging brightness filter down through its cloak and strike at me where I stand, the tree succumbs to the strain of it all and acquiesces its shelter.  I am left heartbroken to see such an ancient creature conquered so easily when it wanted nothing more than to keep its shadows.  I offer it the paltry gratitude that fills my pockets and assure it I have no other offering, and I briefly touch it in a show of camaraderie that we two, this tree and I, stand together despite the heat’s triumph.  Subtly and so quickly that it’s over before I realize it’s begun, I feel the tree shudder beneath my open hand and hear its weak yet appreciative voice that is felt more through my feet than heard through my ears.  We understand each other, I think, at least to some small degree, and I am, for that brief moment, more than I have ever been before.  I am…