“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” Rumi
Near the fence there are some huge chunks of wood… slices salvaged from the old horse chestnut tree that used to hold my home and garden within its embrace. I loved that tree and watched the seasons change in its leaves; watched the squirrels play and the birds nest there… even writing about it. I felt the life in it, felt its character and history and so I was heartbroken when it had to be taken down.
Leaf mining moths had infested the bole and the sick tree was inspected and found to be rotting away from the inside. It was dying and was no longer deemed safe to hang its limbs over my home. When the massacre by chainsaw was complete we brought three pieces of wood back into the garden to make a little seat.
The seat was dismantled by scaffolders a little while ago and I have yet to reassemble it, but the girth of the branches and the three foot long slice of trunk remain close to the door. I noticed the beauty of the frosted mosses and fungi growing on them when I took the camera out this morning. The frost was heavy and the world wrapped in fog; everything white and the sky invisible until the sun broke through. The camera was a vain attempt to capture the mood and the beauty of the ice crystals that dusted the tousled remains of the day.
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Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
I hate the cutting of trees. I feel it as a personal hurt. My mother felt the same way. I never understood, as a child, why she transplanted every baby oak tree she found, but now I get it. And still in the end, after we left that home, they came and cut down her beloved oaks because they were in the way of building new condos. At least your tree was sick. These were the last white oaks in NY state. All the rest had been cut down to use for the masts of tall ships.
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It is more than sad to see them go. The new high speed rail link no one except the developpers want, just razed a beautiful old avenue of oaks that, even if replanted, would take a century to replace. I feel that hurt too. You can hear them scream…
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absolutely
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Beautiful.
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Thank you, Ruth.
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Whilst i can relate to having to part with a beloved ‘house tree,’ my greatest takeaway is the conclusions reached, once the opening was created. Brilliantly written, Sue. 🌹
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Thanks, Bela… not all the things e love are good for us and sometimes, letting them go, is the hardest and most valuable lesson of all. ❤
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Indeed.
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A beautiful and poignant post, Sue. You are such an inspiration. I took the liberty of using a quote from one of your blog posts and created a meme that will be in tomorrow’s Meditation post. I hope you will see it and know what an impact you are having on the world. Hugs!
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Thank you, Jan… there is something about being quoted that means morethan any words can say. x
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Change can be so challenging. ❤️
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