I know it’s not December or Christmastime, but this is the one I chose to share today. Most of us know the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe at Christmas, but if you’re like me, you don’t know much more than that about it. In researching it this morning I learned quiet a bit. Beginning with the fact that mistletoe is a hemiparasite. Hemiparasites can live off of another plant, but are also capable of living on their own and making their own chlorophyll through photosynthesis. According to Britannica.com, mistletoe also has a storied past in Druid legends, where it is said to have been used in ceremonies of sacrifice and was also believed to have medicinal qualities.

In the 1800’s people corresponded by letter, an act which today we find delightfully surprising because so few do it. Emily was known to frequently send poems to friends and family in her letters to them. She sent her “Mistletoe” poem to her friend Samuel Bowles, the editor-in-chief of the Springfield Republican newspaper and is thought to have personified the rose as herself. I chose to place her in the role of the tree and profess her willingness to let another share herself, something I think she’d willingly submit to in the name of the deep soulful love she seems to have felt for several people, both male and female, in her life.