Why do you believe this tree should be selected as the winner in this category?

The Hugging Birches

I grew up in the same neighbourhood as these trees. I would watch the trees hold each other close during the cold winter months, blossom in young love together in the spring, invite birds and squirrels to bask in their canopy of shade throughout the hot summer months, and grieve with each other as they aged another year every autumn. The trees love each other so much they have grown to become one.

As a young girl I romanticized this tree. When I walked past it on my way to school I imagined how it would feel to find a love in real life like the love symbolized by this hugging tree. So, whenever I started a new relationship, I intentionally took my flame on walks through the neighbourhood making sure to walk past the hugging tree. I would watch my love interest’s face intently to see if he recognized the beauty in the hugging tree. If my flame showed no interest in the tree, inevitably I lost interest in him not long after.

A few years ago I met someone. Like always, I took him on a walk through the neighbourhood and as we approached the tree, he stopped walking. My heart stopped. He exclaimed how much it looked like two trees were hugging, and how beautifully they had grown in to one tree. I knew he saw the spirit of the trees, and I knew that I would never be with anyone else. We have since moved out of the neighbourhood, but still go on walks past the hugging tree. We hold each other as we remember where the roots of our own love began.