I am not a tree hugger.

It’s just a tree.  It happens to be the tree I have parked under for the better part of ten years, but it is still just a tree.  It doesn’t matter that I have had a love-hate relationship with that tree all this time.  Sure, in the Spring it would drop sap all over my car but in the Summer it would shield my car from the blazing sun.

It doesn’t matter that I have watched it grow.  It doesn’t matter that many mornings I would gaze at it and wonder how old it was.  It doesn’t matter that I have wondered who originally planted it.  It doesn’t matter that it is not as healthy as it appears.  It doesn’t matter that every time a storm passes by it drops large branches.  Those storms will pass just like the countless storms it has weathered in the past, right?

No, none of that matters.

What matters is that today as I climbed into my car to drive away I stopped and bid farewell to that old tree by giving it a friendly pat on the trunk. 

After all, I am not a tree hugger…