It’s astonishing, and humbling, to consider the history of a tree. On my property I have a 300 year old white oak. That’s older than the United States. Just think of what that tree has experienced, and what has happened during the time it’s been growing right there: historic storms and gentle seasons, times when it grew well and easily and other times when it barely survived, Native Americans, the first explorers, and then the settlers, and now us. It’s a kind of richness that it offers to share with us, if we only look for it. It’s my belief that the older the tree, the better the character. The more beauty there is in it. When you know it, is just something.