Barking Up the Wrong Tree

It was the final day of school, and it seemed like an appropriate time to make my last walk into school. Throughout the year, the 22 minute stroll has been the source of great deep travel. It has allowed me to see how the neighborhood functions in the morning, people taking out the trash, dogs on their morning walk, lights on throughout the night, and workers already hours into their job. 

The observation this morning that captured my senses was a set of trees not far from my house. They are a set of three sycamore trees that have grown to incredible heights. What intrigued me about these trees isn't the shade that they provide or the hand-sized leaves that they produce, but the bark on the tree. I realized that I have been telling the story to my daughters of how camouflage was started because all of the troops were in battle near sycamore trees, so they needed that pattern to hide from their enemies. I think that there is an ounce of truth buried in that pound of a story, but it also reminded me how easy it is to clutch to legends. 

I also thought about my daughters peeling the bark off the tree and adding themselves to a list of folks that have done the same thing, only for the sycamore to sigh and grow stronger. Though deep travel is now becoming a hobby, I also possess a tech and gadget side to me. Recently I found a great app for my iPad called Leafsnap. It is an electronic field guide for trees. It has been  tremendous to do leaf identification, but it also left me thinking about the place for technology in the deep travel journey. Can they be friends? Are they always sucking the energy from each others? I guess only time will tell. 

Next time you have a moment for deep travel, keep an eye out for the sycamore tree, there may be a story hiding right in front of you.