Sunset on a leaning tree

It’s the middle of the evening and I’m running out of gas. Funny how those expressions come about and stick with you. Maybe there’ll be a generation talking about running out of gas long after electric cars. I hope so. It’s not the expression so much as it is what it conveys. It’s nice, once in a while, to write an easy turn of phrase that is so universal. You know someone reading it can tell just how you feel.

As much of a sunrise person as I am, I’ve not been as poised for sunset. Tonight, coming out the back door, there was something about the light and the way it shown on this one tall tree just inside the woods side of the yard. It was standing out like an actress surrounded by a chorus line that no one was looking at. The spotlight was on her alone. It made me feel as if I’d never seen her before…and how could I have missed her.

This particular tree is a leaner, tall and slender. I suppose it was last fall that we had the branches cut that seemed to make her lean toward sunrise. She’s still leaning and now so bare. In the light she made an arc. Henry and I saw a deer cross the road yesterday and the tree reminded me of her: young and slender. Our deer crossing was at about the same time of evening and the light graced her too.

Sunrise and sunset feel like graceful, quiet times, and I’m glad of them.