We wanted a real tree for the holiday, this year, but Evelyn and I don't like the idea of growing and cutting down and then transporting and throwing away a tree just for that. The carbon footprint, any way you do it, just seems a waste.

I had a live tree once, which I planted after Christmas, and that was a nice way to go, but expensive, messy and lots of work. The ball is very heavy and you need to keep it moist while the tree is inside - then move it outside - where you had better have already prepared a hole because everything will probably be frozen out there...

This year, we hoped to find a stray tree in distress somewhere in the city, as we were driving around - a victim of toxic conditions so severe that cutting the tree down would be doing it a favor... putting it out of its misery. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear evergreens may survive in toxic conditions, as there are very few of them around the urban areas of Cleveland, and none in the industrial brownfields we frequent.

So Christmas Eve came, still with no beacon for Santa... and no money to waste.

I remembered the best tree my family ever had, as I was growing up. It was actually the top of a blue spruce that snapped off in the border of my parents' yard, after that big Thanksgiving storm like three decades ago.

I realized, it would be best to find the top of another tree to use as our Christmas tree, leaving the source tree alive.

Looking around my parents' neighborhood, where we spent the holidays... and there have been planted many ornamental evergreens... I saw several interesting, legal and ethical candidates... our tree may be smallish, an odd species, and odd shaped - more like "A Charlie Brown Christmas" than "A Christmas Story" - but we would have an Earth friendly tree.

After the kids were in bed, just after midnight, Christmas morning, I went out and culled my first choice... a tall, thin, straight sprout of blue spruce... one of two tops that oddly rose together from a stub of a larger tree, in my parents' border, rising up about 15 feet from the ground.

Now promoted to full "tree" status, our tree-top-tree stands thin and tall - about 6 feet - and straight as an arrow. Reaching out from it's thin trunk are seven tiers of perfectly proportioned, strong, lean branches - each spaced about a foot apart. Being cut just hours ago, it feels and smells as healthy as nature may be, and I doubt we'll lose a needle through the holiday. This is a perfect tree.

When I looked at the place where I had removed our tree, now by the light of day, I was pleased to see the other top that I left behind was perfectly straight and balanced, like our tree, and the still-proud, complete source tree now seemed in better harmony than before. Then I realized, this was the same tree that had it's top snapped off by nature, providing my family a Christmas tree those many years ago.

Now, nature and that tree had supplied another amazing Christmas Tree for my family, this year. We had two memorable Christmas trees, without ever killing a tree. In the end man worked in harmony with nature to put a tree back in balance.

Life may be giving and fulfilling if you are receptive. No foundations required.

May you be receptive to the gifts of nature and the fulfillment offered by life in this next, most important year of all our lives.

Happy Holidays!

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