Since we’ve had some nice weather recently in Texas I’ve been taking my son outside for longer periods of time. Nothing too long or too far away from home (really just in our own yard) so that water, diapers, wipes, crackers and other food items are close by (along with Air Conditioning and shade). He’s had quite a lot of fun. We take our time and put on his shoes, put on a pair of shorts, try to keep a hat on his head and then journey outdoors where the world is much taller than the ceilings of our home. He’s been discovering new things every day but recently he discovered trees.
Now it’s not like he hadn’t seen trees before. He’s touched them and looked up at them from below. He’s sat in one. He’s touched their leaves and plucked them right from branches. His relationship with trees, however, has somehow been smaller than I realized. His relationship was focused on individual elements of the trees rather than the whole tree. This is similar to the parable about the blind men touching various parts of an animal and all having a different idea of what they were touching based on their individual parts. Multiple perspectives (or at least a larger perspective) is required for truly understanding what is in front of you. So it was with the tree.
We went outside and picked up a leaf off of the ground. This was a large leaf and completely green. My son twirled it around happily. We examined the ridges and edges around the whole leaf. Then I lifted him up to touch the leaves of the tree itself. He recognized that they were the same but he still didn’t understand the tree. After this we stepped far back from the tree and looked up towards the tree. From here we could see the whole thing. As luck would have it the wind picked up greatly and rustled through the tree blowing the branches and setting the leaves in a great movement like that of the ocean. I had our son hold up the leaf and then look at the tree — a BIG SMILE! He got it. He understood. He knew he was holding a small part of that big tree. That day my son discovered trees.