Last week I drove Marcia home and we were talking, having a great time. We saw Wally and Pat (landlord) two common characters on our block sitting on Wally’s porch next door to us. “Hi Lizzy! Hi Marcia!” Wally said. “Hi!” she replied.
GASP! A small scream of dismay, my jaw dropped.
Pat had trimmed Wally’s tree. The same tree that shades our porch and front windows. The tree that I sat staring at the night before watching birds play in. The tree that provides shade and oxygen for our little section of the neighborhood. The tree that makes me feel like I’m sort of still in the Midwest and not living in a city stuck in the middle of a giant cornfield. That tree I love with my whole soul.
Arms cut off unnecessarily, branches askew, a couple bare spots on the side closest to the porch. A tragic hack job that apparently cost $400/hour.
“YOU CUT THE TREE!” I yelled. “It’s ok, it’s ok” Pat tried to calm me down. Wally started looking a bit worried. “It’s ok Lizzy.” ”I can’t believe you did that!!” “It’ll grow back” Pat said, “It’ll be shedding all over your yard by fall.”
I went inside, laid on my bed and started crying. This might seem like an end of the week fatigue cry but I contend it was purely about the tree. “Where will it end? Where is the line?” I asked myself (and Marcia) remembering threats from Pat and Wally about the apple tree in Wally’s back yard that hangs over our fence.
Later I made the point in defense of my tears that after all I DO have a degree in sustainable business, so that proves I love the environment.
5 responses so far ↓
Amanda // August 26, 2009 at 2:30 pm |
you yelled at Wally??
sorry about your tree. my parents cut down the most beautiful giant tree behind our house last summer that i have loved my whole life. emily and i threatened to protest by chaining ourselves to it…
jara b // August 28, 2009 at 1:57 am |
http://www.enneagramlovers.com/blog/2009/08/tips-on-type-type-one-and-nature/
jayzee // September 6, 2009 at 8:55 pm |
On behalf of tree huggers everywhere, thank you for your tears.
athada // October 6, 2009 at 12:50 am |
it’s always just another tree until it’s YOUR tree. we had ours in Marion… giving us shade Summer, snow-perches in winter, a vertical surface for a downy woodpecker one morning. I know what you mean.
Rachel Whalley // October 8, 2009 at 8:52 am |
Jara, thanks for leaving a link to our enneagram site on this post!
Liz, I don’t know you, but I’m assuming that Jara thinks you’re an enneagram Type One. If so, I have a brief story to share with you.
My mom lives on 11 acres of property, surrounded by semi-wilderness and tons of trees. And there’s this dead tree she calls a “snag” that’s visible from her dining room window. She and my stepdad talk about this tree all the time.
One winter recently, they had huge ice and wind storms, and that snag couldn’t take it. It cracked and fell over.
And my mom? She cried.
She loved that tree so much, and it wasn’t even alive anymore!
Your story reminded me of that time with my mom…and I love my mom for that. She’s not the most emotional or gooey person, so there’s something incredibly endearing about how much she loved that tree.