The cost of change
Making way for something new
We said goodbye to one of our beloved old oak trees on the second day of the new year. This tree shaded our children’s playroom and offered a place for the crows to gather for their weekly meetings. It provided food storage for the red capped woodpeckers. Better the tree than our house, I often thought when I saw them pecking the sides of the tree with their beaks, eager to put up their acorns for winter. This tree was tall and thin. It arched towards the sun and our home, appearing that it might fall over if it got too top heavy. It was perfectly imperfect. It was ours to take care of. It was alive.
I didn’t fully realize how much the tree was part of our family. Living a couple of feet from our deck, we connected with it daily. It shaped how the light fell into the rooms in the back of the house. It brought joy to our lives. My family and I experienced so much life through the tree and because of the tree. It served as a frequent reminder of why we left …