
The Marker Trees of Faith
By Chris Braudaway-Bauman
In a recent essay, Barbara Brown Taylor tells of a quiet wonder she and her husband Ed have encountered while walking through the woods. Ed searches for marker trees – also known as trail trees or pointer trees. Setting them apart from their arboreal kin are two distinct bends in their trunks. The first bend curves sharply, just a few feet above the ground, angling the tree to grow horizontally for a stretch, like an arm extended in gesture. Then, as soon as it’s long enough to point in a discernable direction, the trunk turns skyward once more, rising straight and tall toward the light.