One day I found myself walking along, looking at the world around me. I passed a stand of birch and I found myself thinking, if I only knew how to paint, I’d paint these trees. I kept moving along, but the sight of the trees remained in my mind and I found myself thinking, if only I could write music then maybe I could write a song about the trees. But I know I don’t write music and so I started thinking, if only I could sing then maybe I could find someone else to write the music, but that would only work if I wasn’t shy. Now, I don’t really think I can sing but sometimes when I’m sure I’m alone, some kind of sound passes between my lips. And so that day, with all those if’s put out into the world, I decided to go ahead and try that singing thing. The following soft words emerged in some kind of rhythm.
If I knew how to paint
I’d paint these trees
How the wind does make them sway
Their leaves sunlit
Their branches bent
While high above soars a bird
Nothing Earth-shattering but it did make me feel good to sing and then hum the song for a bit. Only later did I realize that the tune (if that’s the right word) that I used for my trees was for that of Amazing Grace, a point made clear when I viewed one of today’s Cowbird Daily stories. The video short is an excerpt from the journey of another walker, Andrew Forsthoefel. I hope you have a chance to view and listen to the video for yourself. And by the way, that picture above … there must have been a day when I forgot that I couldn’t paint. 😉
Words + Images 