Nests in winter

Except for the evergreens and the pin oaks, the trees in this part of the world are all bare now. It was a beautiful fall, and the trees were ablaze with yellow and red leaves, but within a few November days the weather turned cold and the trees dropped their leaves.

The tree branches are bare now, exposing what the leaves were hiding.  Secluded houses, obscured by a wall of greenery in the summer, are now visible along with junked cars, piles of trash, and cloudy sky.

You can also spot nests in the bare branches. The small, neat nests belonged to birds, most of which have left this area for the winter while the bigger, messier nests belong to squirrels who  are having a heyday in our backyard. In the summer you could hear them running across the roof, but now that the leaves are gone, you can also see them running around through the trees, jumping from branch to branch, chasing each other.

Seeing the nests in the bare branches made me think that people are like trees.  When we are young, we are beautiful, or at least as good-looking as we are going to get. But we don't realize this, and instead we spend an inordinate amount of time picking out clothes and makeup will enhance our attractiveness.

Luckily, when we reach middle age, we lose our fascination with outward appearances (or at least most of us do). We have dropped our leaves, so to speak, baring the nests in our branches. Whatever it is that makes us who we are is exposed. Some have no nests in our branches, but many of us do. The nests can be old wounds or insecurities or an inability to forgive ourselves. The nests can also positive, like a great relationship between spouses or a strong belief in God.

In this part of the world, spring eventually comes and trees sprout pale green leaves. Soon the branches are again covered, and we forget about the nests, but they are still there, under the leaves. The nests in the trees don't disappear, and neither do ours, but we can decide to acknowledge them during the chill of winter or sigh and wish that spring would come soon.