D surprised me a few days ago with a short text.
D: "You're in [insert city of choice] until next week?" I've been in a town far from home for a few days now on business.
Me: "10-4"
D: "Cool. I found a cheap flight. I'll be there Friday afternoon."
That brought a smile to my face. It had been several months since I'd have the chance to catch up with her in-person, though we text daily. I immediately started organizing and planning, as I do with every visit with my play partners. I found a rope club so we could have a rope scene. I found dinner arrangements for the nights we'd be alone. But what to do with the weekend? Hmm..
The answer came in the form of an AirBnB several hours north in the mountains. A cute little A-frame cabin nestled near the summit of a ridge, several miles down a winding road. Perfect. D had been asking me for a while about taking her on a primal run, and while it wasn't a full moon, it was Imbolc (Druidic Midwinter) and it would work.
We start and end the run at the cabin, with a naked run through the woods for somewhere around a mile and a half - just enough to begin to trigger a hypothermic response. As I prepared a late meal upon our return, we caught up. The conversation soon turned to the future as we ate then into the "what would yous" of two people strung out on endorphins often does.
"What kind of tree are you?" she asked.
Without hesitation I answered. No need to think.
"A birch tree."
I could hear her rustle in the blankets on the other side of the bed.
"A birch tree? I pictured you more as an oak. Why birch?"
"A birch tree. No question in my mind for a lot of reasons. Birch trees grow almost everywhere. They are a pioneer species, taking over for evergreens in acidic soils, or at burn sites. They literally change the content of the soil, paving the way for other species. Could you imagine if we as humans did that? We as a species just change the soil to suit our needs, not caring what comes after us."
"Birch sap makes great syrup, almost as high in sugar content as maple syrup. Plus in the spring other animals feed upon the sap too as it sometimes seeps out through the bark.
Speaking of bark, the bark is oily, so it's water resistant. You can soak the bark in water and apply it as a cast to a broken bone. It makes a great fire starter too. The bark is high in betulin, which can be used to treat poison ivy and I've heard that it is used to treat tumors as well.
Birch is lightweight and flexible but among the strongest woods. In World War II, the de Havilland Mosquito was made of a sandwich of birch plywood and balsa, the light weight making it one of the fastest planes in the early part of the war. The birch was chosen specifically for its strength to weight ratio.
A tea made from birch leaves is a natural diuretic. Many species of butterflies and moths feed on birch leaves.
Also, since I like to annoy my fellow humans, birch pollen causes a lot of allergies in the spring."
Silence greeted the end of my rant. For a moment I thought perhaps she had drifted off to sleep. The came her response.
"Birch trees are fucking cool. Remind me to hug one on our way out tomorrow."
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