To Climb a Tree

Becoming Rooted in Shenandoah

When I was a college student in New York City, I often daydreamed about climbing trees. It would happen like this: I would look up from my desk, my eyes dizzied from the itty-bitty textbook font they had been parsing for the past hour, and stare out the window. There wasn’t much of a view—my window directly faced the brick dorm room across from mine—but…