Maple Memos

Some Love verses from a Tree. (Plus a giveaway!)

Friends,

I planted her as a young whip. Ever since, the bigleaf maple in our east pasture has kept her own counsel.

But I hear her anyway. I’ve listened through calvings and children and litters of pups. Through droughts and storms in skies and land and hearts. Through seasons of beginnings and last breaths.

Without a word, she’s spoken strength and surrender, flexibility and shelter. Proffered beauty borne from welcomed gifts of sun and rain, roots and sap.

As her yearly turnings have marked mine, she has counseled me. Taught me to hold the seasons even as they pass. Mostly, though, she reveals more about her Gifter than herself.

Spend some time with her in the pics below?

Linger, if you can. She may counsel you, too.

***

SPRING

“Be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen.“

~James 5:7

SUMMER

“You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.“

~Isaiah 55:12

FALL

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” ~Ecclesiastes 3:1

WINTER

“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night, will never cease.”

~Genesis 8:22

I know . . . she’s quiet.

But did she open up to you?

I’d love to hear.

***

From another tree-learner, this:

( I memorized it as a kid. Maybe you did, too?)

“Trees,” by Joyce Kilmer (1913)

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

---

From my Bookery 📙📙📙

First, a cheer: Congratulations to Sarah Mueller, winner of last month’s giveaway for a copy of What the River Keeps ! Sarah, I’ll be in touch about your preferred format. Thank you, friends, for celebrating this book so fiercely with me.

As for me: with the launch sprint for WTRK finished (what a run!), I’m jogging into the next story. Different critters. Familiar weather. Same hope.

---

New giveaway: Katie Powner’s When the Road Comes Around

I have a soft spot for books that walk grace down country roads to those who need it most. Katie Powner’s When the Road Comes Around does just that, with quiet strength, small-town candor, and light that warms her broken, endearing characters.

Here’s the gist:
Set near the mountains of rural Montana, this contemporary novel follows Tad Bungley, a 24-year-old with a history of bad turns who takes a job at Come Around Ranch and forms unlikely bonds—with Sam, the ranch owners’ disabled son, and TJ, a rescue horse trying to outrun his own reputation. Anita Wilson, 48, is fighting rheumatoid arthritis and the limits it places on the guest ranch she runs with her husband. Hiring Tad was a risk; what none of them expect is how his presence will upend old patterns and teach them when to hold on, when to let go, and what grace really means. Fans of small-town, multigenerational stories and second chances will feel at home here.

How to enter: Subscribers can reply with ROAD in your subject line by October 31. I’ll announce a winner on November 1.

And finally, if pondering trees isn’t your jam . . .

Love,
Cheryl

P. S. Thought you’d enjoy this pic of the early Elwha River Resort—years before biologist Hildy came of age there in What the River Keeps.