We are staying in treehouses on this trip. Our AirBnB lodging was on the second floor, and around the windows were huge old trees. I laid in bed watching birds and squirrels eat and frolic. They were at my eye level and we all looked down on the world.<\/p>\n
Now at our vacation rental near Lake Erie, we are on the ground floor, but the window view from bed is the embrace of a huge old volunteer tree. In the yard we watch squirrels and rabbits at eye level and we are hidden away from the world.<\/p>\n
A treehouse isn’t just a structure. It’s a state of mind. <\/p>\n
A treehouse lets you immerse in nature, become part of it. You are, yourself, a squirrel or maybe a lightning bug. In a treehouse there are no factories, highways, atomic weapons or cell phones. <\/p>\n
There’s only room for you and maybe your best friend or your sister. You look down on the world and you hide from the world. <\/p>\n
Everything small becomes very big. You can conceal yourself with a leaf.<\/p>\n
These Ohio towns that we’re staying in have brought back to me the feeling of being a restless teenager. You can’t really be invisible. Being here is like being in a treehouse in the middle of a field. You can hide but you’re in plain sight.<\/p>\n
We never had a treehouse back home. I didn’t really need one when I was little. I had plenty of trees to climb. Places to look down, to hide, to become as small as a bird.
\nWhen I grew up and couldn’t find a treehouse anymore, I went out into the world and hid under my profession. I could be brave and tough and bold. I could conceal myself in plain sight.<\/p>\n
Now that I’m just a visitor, I’m back in a treehouse state of mind. Looking out at my child past to see what no one else does.
\nEverything small is big again.<\/p>\n
Today’s penny is a 2012, when I came back to visit Ohio and discovered that I like it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We are staying in treehouses on this trip. Our AirBnB lodging was on the second floor, and around the windows were huge old trees. I laid in bed watching birds and squirrels eat and frolic. They were at my eye level and we all looked down on the world. Now at our vacation rental near … read more Treehouse<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[320],"tags":[52,440,1083,1085,88,1086,180,1084],"class_list":["post-8566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shelter","tag-52","tag-ann","tag-childhood","tag-hiding","tag-ohio","tag-treehouse","tag-trees","tag-visitor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8566"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8582,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8566\/revisions\/8582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}