Fellowship Around the Ginkgo

The simplist things in nature can be the most beautiful, and capture the attention of everyone who is fortunate enough to be able to view them.  I was priviliged to see the branches of the Ginkgo in their rich, yellow, fall color, in tall thin vases of water, sitting in the middle of the  tables in a long window lined room.

The room was the large fellowship hall at our small church.  I was walking in that direction with a bag containing hot, fragrant grilled chicken from KFC.  I had just met up with the speaker for the morning  service.   He was with his wife of many years, and no doubt memories were crowding through through their minds,  as he once  pastored this church, on many occasions over many years.  We chatted as we walked toward the  building.   He had his grandson on his mind as he would not be there for the service today, but the rest of his family would be.  The fellowship for the morning began with meeting them as we stepped from our cars, and it continued into the  building.

Before I opened the door I could faintly hear the various tones of voices on the other side.  Thus began the warm tone of the day.  As I stepped inside I said to the nearest people standing around a huge table, " I brought Dottie and Cliff with me".  The talking did not stop, but we were greeted warmly by the ones closest to the door.  We went our separate ways  as I found the hostesses for the dinner and handed over the bucket of chicken in the bag.  I made my way around the room greeting some friends who sat having coffee and snacks at the round tables all decorated with the autumn motif.  The vases on the tables dominated the scene with the rich yellow of the Ginkgo leaves still clinging to the dark brown branches, and dominating  the space with their beauty.  As an admirer of  the fan shaped leaf of this particular tree, I could not resist reaching over and gently touching one and examining  up close it's shape, color and unique vein arrangement.  No other leaf in nature has the parallel veins as does this Ginkgo biloba.  It is an Asiatic tree and well suited to withstand the pollution of our cities.

I have been drawn to the Ginkgo since I was a young girl.  I suppose I caught the fever from my mother.  She first pointed out the Ginkgo to me on a  trip to the local post office, in our small town, in eastern Kentucky.  When I first saw this tree it was as big as a full grown white oak, and dwarfed the building in front of it.  My mother once framed a leaf and the seeds from it, in a small green frame, along with information about it.

The presence of the Ginkfo  pops up in unexpected places.  There is one at the back of the school where I taught first graders for fifteen years.  Each fall I looked forward to seeing the rich yellow leaves, as I walked my children to their Gym class.  It was a young tree then but after twenty years it must be more than twice the size it was then.  They are a slow growing tree but well worth the wait.

I spotted a row of them planted on the main east/west  highway in our town.  Some one else appreciated this tree, as the decision was made to plant around six of them in front of a grocery store.  Perhaps this same city planner wanted to see them across town as a row of them is planted near the corner of two busy streets, Washington and Academy Streets near the town square.  Some days when I am caught waiting for a light to change I am parked beside this row of  Ginkgoes and have the pleasure of seeing them all green.  However they achieve their greatest beauty in the fall of the year.

Trees have always held a fascination for me.  In winter when no leaves can conceal the structure of  their many branches, they are best displayed against a cloudless sky.  The different, textured bark of the hardwoods and the peeling bark of  the Crape Myrtles,  are close to me here where I live.  My woods is full of the beauty of the bark of so many of them, not to mention the variety of leaf shapes.  The Mulberry always amuses me with it's three different shape leaves .  The Sassafras also has these particular leaf patterns.  Another aspect of the mighty tree is how it nourishes us in many ways with it's fruit.  Perhaps the greatest gift of all the trees is the oxygen it gives back to us while taking away the air we have already used.  We could not,  literally, exist without them.  Nor could we exist without the fellowship of our fellow human beings.  Both are treasures to hold onto  and be sustained by, in order to live in harmony and enjoy a satisfactory life.  If you are out and about and see a tree with rich, yellow foliage gracing its branches, take a closer look, it just may be this interesting Ginkgo, displaying its fall wardrobe.