![](https://i0.wp.com/www.ingebrita.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2.19.24.2800.jpg?resize=650%2C488&ssl=1)
As I step out and down the road I think how each individual human child will grow and be quite their very own being. And then I think how each oak tree also has its own individuality, its own essence in quite the same way, too. Each oak has a distinctiveness which may be seen, felt and known — as with my own children, as with every human that lives upon this earth.
~ James Canton
(The Oak Papers)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.ingebrita.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2.19.24.2802.jpg?resize=650%2C488&ssl=1)
In front of our vacation cottage was an amazing oak tree, adorned with plants growing in its fork and Spanish moss hanging from its branches.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.ingebrita.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2.19.24.2804.jpg?resize=650%2C488&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.ingebrita.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2.19.24.2807.jpg?resize=650%2C488&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.ingebrita.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2.19.24.2809.jpg?resize=650%2C488&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.ingebrita.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2.19.24.2810.jpg?resize=650%2C488&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.ingebrita.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2.19.24.2811.jpg?resize=650%2C488&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.ingebrita.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2.19.24.2812.jpg?resize=450%2C600&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.ingebrita.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2.19.24.2814.jpg?resize=450%2C600&ssl=1)
(thanks to Donna & Eliza for the identification)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.ingebrita.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2.19.24.2815.jpg?resize=450%2C600&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.ingebrita.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2.19.24.2816.jpg?resize=650%2C488&ssl=1)
Every morning when we left and every evening when we returned to the cottage I paused and wondered at the energy coming from this tree. It seemed to have a self-sacrificing essence, nurturing so many other lives besides its own. And I thought of my own children and what wonderful adults they became with their very different personalities, interests and talents.