It stands 30 feet high during the windstorm, swaying heavily side to side, bending, but never breaking. It cries when the rain falls, dripping tears off leaves like droplets from hundreds of leaking faucets. And yet, when the storm ceases, it stands erect again, drying under the emerging sun, resting peacefully through the early evening hours.

The weeping willow is an extraordinary tree. Although it's common in China, you don't see too many around here anymore, and when you do, you take notice, especially if the willow stands alone near a pond or lake.According to folklore, the branches of the willow once pointed upward until two young lovers, who used to meet often under the tree, died mysteriously just days before their wedding. Since then each willow droops its branches in eternal sadness and weeps for the star-crossed lovers each time it rains.Artists and writers have portrayed the willow as a symbol of death. Claude Monet's famous painting memorializes fallen soldiers from World War I under a weeping willow. William Shakespeare includes the tree in his tragic plays and more recently, Harry Potter's Whomping Willow hides the entrance to a secret passageway.It is believed that witches made their brooms from willow wood; however, there are known qualities of the limbs of the tree that are helpful to those in need. The serpentine shapes of the branches cause mystics to believe that the tree has fertile powers and when a branch is placed in a married woman's bed, it will help her conceive. A child born from the spirit of the willow is said to have the gifts of the gods.The weeping willow tree offers healing powers, too. The branches contain salicylic acid, an ingredient synthetically produced in aspirin. Native Americans used this liquid as a remedy for headaches. The bark of the tree has been adapted to treat stomach ailments, heartburn and inflammatory diseases.Henry David Thoreau, during his two-year seclusion at Walden Pond, observed that willow trees sent out their roots in the direction of water. "This is where a wise man should build his cellar," he wrote. Thoreau implied that the willow seeks to stay close to its perennial source of life while man moves farther and farther away from what sustains his healthy existence.While growing up I used to love to close myself inside the canopy of this giant weeping willow tree my neighbor had in the backfield of his property. No one could see me when I sat against the trunk as the branches moved like windshield wipers in the soft summer breezes. Sheltered in its cooling shade, I could see the hot sun's vapors rising above the golden field in the late afternoons.I often escaped my difficult home life to this secret place where I felt peace under the willow's protective embrace. I watched orange and yellow butterflies dance across the field. I listened to the songs of chickadees and purple finches.When thunderstorms raged over the horizon, the willow's branches opened wide in the gusting wind so I could enjoy the spectacular sound and sight show produced by Mother Nature. Downpours were filtered through the willow's leaves into refreshing droplets of water to cool my skin from the blistering heat of the day.I've always thought that trees are spiritual. In a past life that I've written about in a novel I've recently published, a great Southern living oak was my sacred sanctuary to contemplate the immortality of my soul. I think that every tree has a story to tell about the living, the dying, the battles of wars, the births of Native American children, the promises made by lovers to each other, and the years of civilized progress that have marched through the mountains and the valleys.According to the website, Light Omega, "The spirit of each tree can speak to those who listen, sometimes with words, but often in the hum of its existence - the vibration of its life-force which connects its roots with the tips of its branches. These giant beings are willing communicators as friends of the earth, friends of souls, and guardians of the planetary atmosphere. If they were given more in the way of respect and appreciation, they would be able to produce more replenishment for the earth's atmosphere than what is currently thought of as possible."My childhood tree stands no longer. It was bulldozed many years ago to make room for condominiums and town houses that now sprawl across the area where once lay my golden field.Civilization vanquished my weeping willow tree, but it lives forever in my memory. I still go there and look out over my field of gold whenever I want to seek shelter from a storm or to feel the peace from its everlasting spirit.Rich Strack can be reached at

katehep11@gmail.com.