Several Trees Grow in Brooklyn

You know that feeling you get when you've rushed out of your house or office and you're just trying to get to the train and you're stuck inside your head thinking about (and only about) all the things that are annoying you or stressing you, and you feel like there is a dark cloud, rumbling with thunder, just over your head, following your every step? I'll bet you're nodding your head in recognition, because I see it on the faces of my fellow commuters every day. I've found a sure-fire method of interrupting this cyclical and detrimental thought pattern. I look at a tree.

OK, I know it sounds simplistic, but I've been reading about maintaining a sense of awe and bewilderment to broaden your mind and make a closer connection with the universe, and I find no better way to do this than to contemplate the natural world. It's even more impressive when you look at a tree growing in the middle of a sidewalk. Even the bare trees of winter give me pause. Where did it come from? Why did man first remove a tree from this place and then put one back? I like to think about the potential of a bare tree, dormant for now, but harboring the magic of the spring bloom, imagining what it will look like in April and how many different leaves and flowers will appear, seemingly overnight. I mean, that's pretty amazing!

I stop thinking in circles, and allow myself to be awed. Maybe the sun didn't really come out from behind the real clouds, but when that self-imposed thunderhead is blown away, everything looks brighter.