One summer we decided to bury a box by the tree...and included items and memories from that year, plus a letter that we each penned to each other, sealed, with the intention of returning the next summer to open the box and read the letters from the year previous. Pretty romantic, huh? And hopeful, too...as we never knew for sure if we'd still be together the next summer...but both had a good feeling about it! We did this for each summer that we dated (and still have all the contents we chose stored away carefully...photos, ticket stubs, notes, rocks, etc).
After 3 years of dating, a semester that we broke up, lots of agonizing together about what our future might look like...we returned to our tree in August of 1998 to dig up our box from the summer before. This time, there were many other trees with carvings in them all along the path to "our" tree...carvings that were on 2 trees but went together, sweet messages with code names we used for each other over e-mail. This should have made me suspicious, but in those days a romantic gesture like this was not out-of-the-ordinary! It was a hot day, we were sweaty and itchy from the hike...and finally settled in around our digging work to enjoy the items in the box. When we got to the letters...he read mine first. Then I read his, and at the end of the letter was this strange instruction, which said something like "continue digging" (I'd tell you precisely what it said, but all of our stuff is in storage still...don't know where the letter is exactly!)
So I kept digging...and came to another box...and in it was a ring...and Joe asked me if I would marry him...and the rest is history. We got root beer floats afterward to celebrate, not knowing what else to do as the newly-engaged...and looked at each other with strange wonder at what was ahead.
(In case you are wondering...Joe had not planned this engagement a year ahead of time! He returned to the site and added the note and buried the ring right before the proposal...actually, I seem to remember that his dad had to bury the ring because it was only ready at the last minute before the proposal...and that it involved specific instructions to his dad about how to find the tree "go west after the second oak tree, then take 40 paces north...")
So this tree and these woods are special to us. We had not been there in many years...probably 6 or 7...but decided to take the girls a few weeks ago.
Truth be known, we went to take a hike on the first Sunday that it was warmer than 30 degrees around here...the snow was still super deep (2 or 3 feet), but it was sunny and beautiful. Some new houses had been built on the property, so it took us awhile to find our normal markers and get oriented on the land. But we eventually found the tree. Our initials were much harder to see than a decade ago...but they are there if you look closely.
Rowan wouldn't join us for a picture, but Piper is nestled warmly in the Moby under my coat. You can see her little head sticking out in a bear hat.
We stayed there for awhile...Joe and Rowan built a snow fort, threw snowballs. We identified lots of animal tracks.
Felt surreal to bring our children to this spot. We'll be married 10 years this summer...and while I really don't feel that old, having a place like this to return to and experiencing the flood of memories makes me feel grounded, with history, with a story, with a journey that isn't just beginning any more...but one which has a significant portion of it already written.
There are just a handful more photos at Flickr here.
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