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Today on the way home from work I turned a corner in an office park and in a median where there once stood three beautiful trees now stood just the bottom 1/3rd of them, hacked and splintered, pushing out of the earth just enough to break. It seemed an unceremonius act this hatcheting.

As I continued to drive, trees that I have lost in the past came to mind. I hold so many lost trees in my heart. It made me wonder if others do that too. Do you?

Across the street from my parent’s house is a small home on a large lawn. When the new owner moved it they removed a huge beautiful tree that shaded the entire yard. It was a majestic tree, limbs stretched out all over the sky. Now the sky is stark and empty. The sun bears down making it feel almost desert like. Almost every time I pass it I remember that tree and I mourn the loss of its shade.

Where I work a beautiful tall pine fell over because we had had too much rain. It was my morning tree, the one I said hello to every day on the way into work. I miss that tree. I miss the way it made me feel optimistic. Its energy was joyful.

In a park that I love to walk in, they tore down an entire row of pines and large old trees. They left them lying on the ground for months and I would trail my hands across them in sorrow when I came to walk. I gave them my apology wondering if in that wood a spirit still lived. When I walk there I can still see it as it was – a little forest oasis where your skin brushed up against piney scents and leaf-filled air.

Trees feel like benevolent spirits to me, quiet friends willing to stand with you in any sort of weather. They fill the periphery of our lives, gentle giants casting shade upon weary wanderers. I recently had a thought that it is easy to have gratitude for a tree. It is easier than having a thought, tree lovers love without knowing and when the tree is gone they love the memory of it.

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