2019 is history!

I’m hopeful about the newness of 2020 and thinking a lot about the theme of pruning and resetting the things in my life that are unnecessary, disillusioned, or disruptive, and feeding more of my life with values that help me with being present in the moment and allowing for deepening my experiences and relationships.

One reason this theme has been present is due to a large maple tree in my yard, which needed to be trimmed to cut away the overgrowth and dead branches to support the health of the tree. I was actually researching how to prune it myself, (maybe a bit unrealistic), but then I came home after work last month and found a 250-300lb tree limb (that had broken off) and landed on a fence with most of it laying in my neighbor's yard. I was surprised because there wasn't any visual signs of the tree being so fragile and it didn't seem that the winds were strong enough to make such an impact.

I immediately contacted an arborist who was able to come and remove the broken limb and began to exam the tree and provide a sense of what it needed. Days later, after he pruned the tree, he found that a certain area of the tree had a growing infection, which was why the broken limb didn't have the strength to withstand a moderate storm. He sensed that it could have been from soil contamination or some root disturbance, but the tree needed ongoing help by providing nutrients and water to the soil around the tree. His ability to remove the infected area seemed to preserve the whole body of the tree, which wasn’t only important for the individual tree but the greater environment.

In my blog, from March 2018 - Leaning from Trees, I had mentioned that in Peter Wohlleben’s book, "The Hidden Life of Trees," he talks about trees being highly social and that they care and support each other to help with stabilizing one another - even in extreme weather conditions. He also talks about how they feed and support one another, without having conditions for each other, no matter what type of tree - and that while caring for others the tree is also caring and taking care of itself - seeming to realize that to feel well the trees need one another. In this case, the tree in my yard needed outside help from the arborist so that the tree could better withstand the extreme New England weather, as well as being strong enough to support the other local trees and plants.

Suzanne Simard, an ecologist and professor, at the University of British Columbia, also talks about the trees being in network with one another, and the elaborate root systems underground are massive communication pathways. She refers to trees not being individuals, due to constantly interacting with one another and helping each other to survive.

In my situation, the early response of the arborist gave me a greater sense of some of the problems affecting the tree, what it needed, and left the choice up to me on how to respond moving forward. I could have dealt with the situation on my own, but it became clear that I would have jeopardized the tree, and those in the network, over the next few years if I didn't have the arborist return to help with healing the tree.

Looking forward to 2020, I hope that being part of a growing network continues to evolve in helping with the growth, as well as the weathering of life’s storms, while being able to provide and feed off of the light and nutrients of others.