Climbing Down From A Tree

Climbing trees is something that kids seldom do anymore; there are either no trees to climb, or kids no longer enjoy going where there are trees to climb, or kids no longer want to be outdoors, or perhaps parents no longer allow kids to explore the world of adventure and risk. Many people of my generation have a tree story; a favorite tree they used to climb, a treehouse story, or my special favorite – a tree they climbed that was difficult to descend from. There is nothing quite like climbing a tree, looking down, and experiencing that moment of fright with the question, “Now that I’m here, how will I get down?”

When Vickie was a little girl she climbed a tall pine tree, higher and higher she went – then she stopped and looked down…and froze. She was frightened. But she didn’t want the other children she was playing with to know she was frightened. There she was, frozen to the pine tree as if she had been an icicle in a winter storm with no thaw in sight.

While the children she was playing with didn’t understand Vickie’s fear, a young mother in the neighborhood had been keeping an eye on the kids and she realized what was going on inside the young girl at the top of the tree. The mother’s solution to the problem of Vickie’s fear was not to “talk her down”. Instead, the mother climbed the tree up to where Vickie was, engaged Vickie in conversation, and then said, “Well, let’s climb down now,” and climb down together they did, branch by branch.

It can be lonely when you’ve climbed a tree and don’t know how to get down.

There are times we don’t need people to tell us what to do, we need people to be with us, to walk with us through life’s vicissitudes. We may be at the top of a tree or at the bottom of a well; we don’t need words, we need presence, we need companionship. There are times we don’t need people to tell us the way, we need them to show us the way.

How many times have others climbed a tree to be with me? How many times have people climbed a tree to be with you?

Perhaps more importantly, who is there today who needs me to climb a tree to be with them? Of course, if I’m not paying attention to others the way that young mother was I’ll not notice them.

Can you find someone today to climb up to? Or down to?