Welcome to This Is The Gospel, an LDS living podcast where we feature real stories from

real people who are practicing and living their faith every day.

I'm your host, Corinne Lee.

When I was growing up in Pennsylvania, which literally means pens, woods, you could say

that I took trees for granted.

Like the McDonald's on every corner or whatever new variant of COVID is about to ruin our

best laid plans, trees were just everywhere.

And beside my childhood appreciation of tree branches as a place to hide from my siblings

with the newest babysitter club book, I didn't really notice, serve, not notice trees.

But then I moved to the desert in my mid 20s.

And that first summer of the Utah dry hot heat, I noticed something totally crazy.

I could be dying a slow roasting death in the unfiltered sunlight, but the minute I stepped

into the shade of a tree, it was actually cooler.

I know this is something that's like scientific and all of that, but when you grow up with

humidity, trees don't do a whole lot to stave off the dripping death of summer.

So this was totally novel to me.

And I think I spent that entire first summer writing and reading under the trees of liberty

and memorial parks and downtown Salt Lake.

And now I am totally obsessed with laying under trees.

In fact, my happiest place is in my backyard swaying in the hammock under a canopy of

lacy leaves dappled with summer sunlight.

There is something positively life giving under those branches.

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