Love letters on a beech

The weather has turned blissfully murky, and while there have been a few showers, we've yet to have the heavy, steady downpours that we so desperately need. Dank or not, I headed out for a walk, and I decided I'd cross over the millpond waterfall and explore a bit of the back country. Usually, when I head that way, it's only to go as far as the Spinyleg Rock, the boulder that sits out in the pond and has, for the past few years, been the place that I first, and most often, see a Clubtail known as the Black-shouldered Spinyleg. But their season is long over, so there was no point in looking for them. I pressed on. Near the cutoff to the rock, I noticed this Beech, its surface unnaturally cracked by some sort of disease. It was also marked by the passage of hikers and lovers, perhaps one and the same, who'd carved their initials into the bark to let people know, "I was here." I wonder who these folks were and whether they're still here, either in the neighborhood or, well, on the planet. And the lovers, their initials within a heart—did their love last as long as this tree? I know that's what they were hoping when they did the carving. I'll be an optimist and hope they guessed right.