Its not something that you could call : majestic or beautiful. Quite the opposite. There was a time when a bee and few insects were playing through its leaves and he looked happy to have guests. From time to time, a gust of wind would bend a branch, like a challenge, to see if he remembers the initial position. And he always does, with a wooden memory.

I say hello sometimes, if I don't forget, even thou I am not sure if I have been forgiven. My friendship with him - the tree in front of my house, started in the summer, around 7.10 in the morning.

I was smoking, reading news online and drinking coffee, next to my living room window. There was an article about the economy and I throw the cigarette out the window, thinking, how is it possible that from all the governments in the world, not one could prevent the credit crunch from taking place. Don't they have experts? Risk management?

Two seconds later, I realised that I just disposed a light up cigarette thru my window. Feeling guilty and responsible for keeping the front garden clean, I bend over the window, looking for the cigarette, hoping that maybe , I won't be able to locate the cigarette and there is no point going after something that you can't see.

Right when I was about to give up looking for the cigarette, I saw smoke rising up, barely visible and shy, from one of the many branches of a tree beneath my window. The cigarette refused to go away quietly. It got stuck on a branch.

I did hesitate before doing the right thing when you find yourself in a situation where you have a light up cigarette that you can't reach. I throw half of my coffee, aiming the source of the smoke. It never works, I have tried with coca cola too, when I was driving on A3 and the cigarette butt landed back in the car - on the back seat, when I tried to get rid of it, by using the window as an ashtray.

Getting up in the morning its not something that I enjoy, so I did the next right thing to do when you have a light up cigarette that you can't reach. I throw the rest of my coffee - to no avail. The whole morning was slowly but surely becoming an adventure. My plan was to have a coffee, smoke two cigarettes and read the news before I go to work. Having a fire truck parked in front of my house, was not something that I would normally go for, at 7 in the morning.

No. I did not go after the evil cigarette, but I was checking from time to time if the tree was on fire , like Moses did when he was waiting a miracle, the only difference is that I did not want one. Few days later, every time I saw him, there was guilty feeling from my part.

This is why I decided that I have to make a friend out of him, in order to pay for my sins. Later on, I learned to find inspiration just by looking at him, the posture and the strong character he has against everything that life throws out at him, was enough from me to decide that - from now on - he is good enough to be my imaginary best friend. I had to touch him and he was warm, probably because of the sun.

Like in most friendships, there are times when life can make the relationship stronger or weaker. Last summer I used to spend time looking at his young leafs growing out of old wood and I was learning. Now, I am looking at him, and all I see, is an old man dying, deserted by its own leaves.

I know he suffers and he wants me to buy an axe that will open a glass made door to a heaven where only non-smokers are allowed. He looks so unhappy, that I have started drinking my coffee in the bathroom, just to avoid the sight of him.

We both know, the Christmas is a critical time for all trees. Everybody loves Christmas trees, people love to hang shinny things on them and looking at them with love. Who can blame them? Even I love the smell of a Christmas tree - but I do that in secret so that I don't offend him.

Perhaps, this time it is my turn to inspire him. He has to learn from me that the spring is just a matter of time and the winter can not be eternal. With a bit of luck, even the economy does the same.