I grew up without air conditioning, sort of. The house of my childhood had a canopy over it, a canopy formed by five maple trees. As the years have gone by so have two of the trees. But still, even now, the trees welcome the summer’s sun as they shade the house keeping it cool. My mother has always said, with some degree of pride, “We don’t need air conditioning, we have our maple trees.”

This morning as I went for my early walk-run in 80 plus degree heat with pretty intense humidity, I thought about the cooling branches of the trees of my family home. As I rounded a corner on my path, the branches of a sweet gum tree cast it’s shadow, and for a moment I was out of the sun.

As a child I climbed trees, as a teenager I stole a kiss under the branches of the maple sentries in our yard. What about the significant trees in your life? What trees have spread their branches to keep you cool, protect you from wind and rain?

Write a story about trees. Trees you remember, trees that reached out their branches to you.