Text version of the episode:
For most of my childhood and into my teen years, my parents went to pretty much the same church. It was called Word of Grace, and it was a small town church with a handful of families. We had a building in the early years that was sort of on the way out of town. We would drive to church, and turn down this road, and then park. My parents were really active in the church so, my brother and I would find ourselves there an hour or two before service even started.
Out in front of the building there was this tree, and underneath this tree there was a little hill, and we would stand on the little hill and hang off this tree and play, like kids do. Me, and my brother, and this other kid named J. One day, J and my brother decided to really get to swinging on the lowest branch of this tree and it started to rip off. We didn’t really know anything about destroying trees and, we didn’t really care that this tree was in front of the church and we were making the church look kind of run down.
But my Dad came outside and yelled at us and said, “You broke this tree, and it’s a living thing! How could you do this?”
And, my brother and I stopped playing. And then when my Dad went back inside, J grabbed the branch one more time and just ripped it off.
I wonder if that tree is still there today? I wonder if you can see the spot where the branch used to be…