Browsing through my field guide in early summer, I chanced upon the page about the black hawthorn. Years earlier I’d heard about the hawthorn tree and its potential religious significance, but hadn’t known they grow here.<\/p>\n
Reading the description of the hawthorn, I became interested. Nothing specific on the page could I point to that drew my attention. Yet, during the following days, I became preoccupied with that tree; I had to find one.<\/p>\n
Driving past a high school one morning, I noticed a tree with grey, scaly bark. At once I knew it to be a hawthorn. I’d seen that tree hundreds of times; suddenly it was important.<\/p>\n
That evening I took my wife for a walk to visit that tree. Indeed it is a hawthorn – specifically, a black hawthorn, the native kind.<\/p>\n
You probably wouldn’t notice its thorns without approaching closely. However, they’re up to an inch long and command respect. The tree itself resembles an old fruit tree, with a robust trunk.<\/p>\n
Visiting that tree, I got a very special feeling that I’d call religious. Given where it stands, hundreds of people pass close by it every day. I wonder how many have stopped to “meet” it.<\/p>\n
Source:<\/p>\n
Pojar, Jim and Andy MacKinnon. Plants of Coastal British Columbia<\/u>. Vancouver:
BC Ministry of Forests and Lone Pine Publishing, 1994.<\/p>\n