Tine's Tree in the Village

As Tine settled into bed tonight with her memories of her icy walk this afternoon and with her hot water bottle, she thought how walks make a day seem so complete.

"Rubob and I only went around the block today, but I feel as though I might just as well have circumnavigated the globe," she reflected.

She thought of a tree she'd seen along the walk, of how easy it was to imagine that it was rooted in one time and place. But its roots reached deep into soil it shared with all growing things in the village, found support and sustenance in an earth shared by all creation. Its branches spread out into the village air, and beyond into infinite space. The tree shared in the life of the village just as Tine did, and they both shared in the life of the world.

Tine thought of the voyage Bill Pinkney, the Amistad captain, had taken around the world alone, and of Wave Widmar's attempt to reach the North Pole on a solo, unsupported journey.

"We're never really alone," she thought, "though it might seem that way at times. We're all taken along on the voyages of others, like on a busy canal boat filled with passengers."



"Each one of us is swept up into the world's one great adventure in time," Tine thought. "A tree in a wood, a walker on a path, a village in a county -- everything is carried along on one great exploration."

"When I take my walks in the village with Rubob, I feel like the tree must sometimes feel, like I'm at the center of creation."