When the call of the chickadee rings across the crisp morning air, Granite Staters know the first bright sprouts of green will soon bud on the tree outside your window. The buds will turn rich emeralds, jades and olives as the summer wanes on. Summer trees offer us shade from the heat. They’ll whisper warnings of thunderstorms when their leaves turn over and rustle together in the wind. In a spectacular ritual before their deep rest, they’ll paint our state dandelion, vermilion and amber. From November until April, we’ll wait patiently while they slumber for the land to come alive again.
It can’t have been easy for New Hampshire forests to embed their roots so deeply into our granite soil that they manage to cover 84% of our state. But, trees or people, Granite Staters do things the right way, not the easy way. We weave ourselves together into the communities we build and the relationships that thrive across decades despite our tendency to hibernate in the cold weather.
For 40 years, I have planted seeds of friendship and watched them grow here in New Hampshire. The trust you earn through a lifetime of changing seasons is something you grow to appreciate as the world changes. Just as logging, fires and floods can change the landscape, life events can shift our relationships. But, the contradiction that is both the intensely independent and deeply communal spirit of the New Hampshire citizen, remains.
I can’t remember when it first occurred to me that most people aren’t lucky enough to have the same friends from age five into adulthood. That most people don’t share the struggles of motherhood with the same people they shared the joy of learning to ride a bicycle. These friendships are more than gold, as the old song goes. These friendships keep you honest about yourself, who you are and where you came from. These friendships fortify you with the confidence to shoot up to the canopy and out towards the horizon.
When you’ve planted yourself so deeply into this rocky soil, your branches reach out across the valleys and great divides. You learn the good nature and intentions of your neighbors, even those who think differently than you do. New Hampshire citizens are uniquely involved in our communities and the way we govern ourselves. We take our social responsibilities seriously, which is why we are the safest state in the nation. New Hampshire trees don’t merely bend to the ways of the wind. We reach for the sun, overcome obstacles and plant our own futures.
To me, New Hampshire means home. Not just the smell of apple cider or ocean waves. Not only the nostalgia of the notch or the swooping slopes of Mt. Sunapee. New Hampshire means home because of the people I’ve grown with.
Sarah Rogers lives in Concord.