I remember going for walks with my Papa and there was a tree we passed that had old carvings in it. It was an beautiful birch tree that had a smooth silvery bark and had stood there for ages. The letters were near impossible to read because over time the tree grew and the letters stretched and morphed into bubbled lettering but you could still faintly make out some of the letters. I loved it when we would pass the tree because it allowed me to imagine a young couple many decades before I was ever born professing their love in the trunk of this beautiful tree. I wondered who they were, where they lived and what they dreamed of. I even wondered if they were still alive and well and thriving. While deep in the woods their little wooden love note still lived on.
I carved my initials and my age onto her bark when I was 11 and then again when I married a decade later. Years later I was saddened to learn that this beautiful old tree had been taken down by a storm. Even to this day when I pass that spot I have to glance where she once stood and recollect. I remember when I first asked what the bubbled lettering was on the tree and my PaPa told me it was where lovers had once carved their names. Then years later when I borrowed his pocket knife and added my own initials and age.
Did you ever mark a tree and profess your love?