Narda Pitkethly is the founder and CEO of the Nardagani Reading Program and author of Nardagani: A Memoir – Finding Light in the Shadow of a Brother’s Disappearance. Here is the thought she offered me when I asked her to reflect on her feelings about trees.

I decide to go out on our back deck to talk with my favorite tree. She is a tall aspen. Often I see faces in the curves of her branches with her heart-shaped leaves as eyes. The tree and her many faces often comfort me.