The Yellow Bells is putting on a show again this year. It is soaring to outstanding heights and putting out some fabulous yellow blooms. I do wonder, however, how long it will continue. There’s a Chinquapin oak almost beside it, and the little oak is little no more. I suspect by this time next year the branches of the tree will be in the yellow bells head space. So, change is probably coming.

It will be interesting to watch and see how the yellow bells reacts. After all, it’s been in the ground a good while with strong roots. It may just bully its way to sunlight. My guess, however, it that after going up and discovering a tree it will lean out and move to the light. Trees plants and shrubs are adaptable that way. They grow to the path of least resistance. Of course, it could always just wither and die, deprived of light. I’ve seen that happen, too.

If the tree were only human, it could pack its bags and move. Sort of like my Hungarian grandfather did 100 years ago, when he packed his bags and moved to Cleveland where he brought forth my mother. Lucky move for me. I’ve often wondered how someone gets the nerve to leave home and family for a new country. How bad does it have to be? What tree is sucking up all the light? At this point all I can do is guess and be thankful he did it. I can promise you, however, the inertia to stay put is powerful, unless of course, he was a born wanderer, which makes for another story entirely.

John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver’s Tale