IF  I  WERE  A  TREE?

If I were a tree, what kind of a tree would I want to be?

Would I want to be a redwood tree and last at least 923  years?

Would I want to be an olive tree and last 1000 or is it 2000 years in the garden of Gethsemane?

Would I want to be a palm tree giving palm oil and gracious shakes and shimmies  to all looking at me down at  a beach?

Would I want to be an apple tree sending forth apple blossom scents  in the spring and handing out delicious red apples in the fall?

Would I want to be a Christmas tree - all decked out with the finest of ornaments, with gifts left at my feet, indoors, on a rug or a neat wooden floor -  being the background  for dozens of photos and the cause of a 1000 smiles - but by the way, I’m dead?

Would I want to be a banana tree bringing delicious bananas to the breakfast table and be the cause of swing to dozens and dozens of frisky monkeys?

Would I want to be the tree of the cross - being a back and then the death bed for Jesus - becoming the symbol for Christianity?

Would I want to be a mighty oak tree - a sign of hope and a symbol of  strength for an old man sitting on a nursing home porch?

Would I want to be a weeping willow tree - near a small pond on the side -  of a side road - in the suburbs?

Would I want to be a Japanese cherry blossom tree that thousands come to see every spring in Washington D.C. - telling us countries can share beauty and life with each other.

Would I want to be a fig tree  caught by a farmer for doing nothing - but given a 2^nd chance - but now am  living under the gun needing to produce?

If I were a tree, what kind of a tree would I love to be?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

[This was a fun reflection on the  parable of the Fig Tree in today’s gospel Luke 13: 1-9 - for the 29^th Saturday in Ordinary Time.  I know a few people who know all about trees - and types of trees, but I’m treeologically illiterate - so here was an attempt to bring in something about different trees.]