Category: Editor’s Picks

There was an old black walnut tree in my childhood backyard that I was sure was older than the house, older than my dad who grew up on the land where the house sat, older than my grandmother who still lived on the land, as old as the land itself and filled with just as much soul. She was beautiful and dominating and bigger than anything else around. I was a little girl and to me she was massive. Many times I found myself lying underneath and staring up through the branches, or attempting to climb her, or just hugging her trunk because she was big and sturdy and could hold me up without me even trying. She seemed to defy gravity.