“…delayed gratification can be thought of as instant
gratification saved for a later date…”
– Author unknown
Three of them sit directly across the street from my house
on Laughing Coyote Way in Oro Valley.
While we have been living here now for several months, I
feel certain I will always smile when I think of the name of our street. I try to imagine what a coyote might look
like when it begins to laugh…is there a small, yet subtle upward curve at the
corner of the mouth in moments of insightful irony? Does it come at the end of
a really good joke told in a language known only to them? Do they bare their teeth with a wide-open
mouth as they gasp for air because they are laughing so hard? Are they
typically a joyful bunch? I suppose I
will never know the answer to these elusive questions.
The “Three of them…” however, I am referring to are not
coyotes, but the trees in my neighbor Gail’s yard.
They are Velvet Mesquite, a hardy desert
friendly tree, used in neighborhood landscaping and as common as critters and
snakes in this part of the country.
Their bark is rough and thick in pieces and sections that look as though
one could pull them off the sides of the trunk like so many oddly shaped snacks
you might find at the grocery store. 
The leaves look like small ferns with a velvet-like
appearance (hence the name) and they have thorns, long and sharp that could
easily penetrate the tire of a car. The
wood is used for many things, but furniture and ‘mesquite flavored’ barbecue is
its most common. Farmers are not keen
about them, because their taproot can penetrate deeper than 100 feet (30m),
sucking up water that is needed for other things.
It is none of this, however, that caught
my eye about these trees. Two of them
sit about 10 feet apart with branches tightly comingled as though they were one
unusually shaped tree – the northern side much bigger.
About 20 feet away and to the south is a lone Mesquite with
a lovely shaped branch and leaf formation…except…except for its lowest branch
that extends about 14 feet almost horizontally to the north. This branch is oddly longer than the others
on its frame. That would not be so
terribly unusual, I suppose, if the tree 20 feet away to its immediate north (the
smaller of the two previously mentioned) had not also done the same thing. The result is the appearance that these two
trees are ‘holding hands’ (branches), deepening their friendship as their
branches more fully intertwine.
Because I have not lived here that long, I did not have the
opportunity to watch the slow and arduous dance that led these branches to
‘find’ one another. On the other hand,
if it is results that matter, there is little doubt this relationship took time
and patience. They say gratification
delayed is the best, and I suppose this would be an extreme example of “…delayed…” connection – if one could
personify this natural phenomenon. Of
course, without being in the same neighborhood, none of this happens.
I suppose any number scenarios might be imagined in the
context of this small grouping of mesquite trees. I choose to humanize them with the natural inclination
that living things desire to interact with and find friends of their own
kind…you know, lions with lions…dogs with dogs…cats with cats…people with
people… We – that would be humans – always want to know and interact with
something (-one) new, often just to see what happens…when the result is the
connection of friendship, nothing is better.
Plants and trees also seem to have an ability to interact in
languages we do not fully understand, but it is known that trees communicate
with one another through intertwining root systems. Because of the way this develops, my guess is
these trees already knew one another before making the ‘public announcement’ in
my neighbor’s yard.
Many mornings I sit in the little alcove just outside the
front door of our home in a rocking chair beside a small café style table,
eating breakfast, drinking a little coffee and thinking of connections with friends who
have so enriched my life, as I watch the sun wake up the neighborhood and shine
directly on those lovely Mesquite trees across the street.
- ted
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