As a child he found, next to a sheltered stream, a fallen sycamore. Because some of its roots held fast, the tree continued to reach for light. Four of its branches became large trunks, four trees rising from the one horizontal trunk. New roots went down and its life continued fourfold. Later, as a lost man, he returned to the light. It was there waiting. At his baptism, three times his head went under the surface of the Pedernales River — in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Now an old man, he delights in tree branches that reach down towards water. Light falls on their leaves directly from the sun but also from the sun’s reflection off the water, a double dose, a double blessing.
Four trunks, three dunks, a double sun, and we are done.
Tree limbs overhanging the pond at Bellevue State Park, Delaware. Photo Prayer 2026-15. Photo and text copyright 2026 by Danny Nelson Schweers.