Helping Hands: Support found when I least realized I needed it most [Life Story]
A tumultuous week has nearly passed, and I have crested the roughest part of the road. Today I am feeling stronger, like my fuchsia plant gifting the world with fresh tears and exposed hearts to share as an expression of its newfound strength.
This post has been a struggle for me to write. I keep deleting paragraphs of text. How much should I share? Do people really need to know every little detail? Probably not.
So, I'll keep this post related to the one event this week that impressed me the most.
We have had a tree in our yard, that has been a cause of some concern.
This celestial tree pictured here is a #Cherry #tree. It produces two different kinds of flower colors: white blooms on the outer limbs, and pink blooms on the limbs extending from the oldest part of the tree. This is because it grew suckers from the roots. Both the sucker trees and the oldest part of the tree produce fine fruit that is sweet and enjoyable to eat for me and the birds.
Unfortunately, the sucker trees have been growing at such an accelerated pace that they cannot be safely pruned by our own means. The mud it is rooted in isn't providing a solid foundation for the tree, and the weight of the limbs are pulling the high and heavy tree limbs dangerously over our deck, the fence, and our roof. Any day now, it could fall and break, and cause damage to our home.
Despite our desire to keep the tree, it was decided by our family that it should be removed, so we can avoid having to worry about this problem again in the future.
The flowers on this tree are its final opus. Its swan song. It will never be again.
Something is missing here.
We had a team of professionals come to help us take the tree down. My father thought it would be a good idea to chip up the tree, so we can get some more wood chips to cover the yard. What he didn't tell me was that he selected my small 3x3 garden area I had sown seeds into last week to become the dump site. He put a tarp over it, thinking that would be fine, and I became upset with him, but eventually I got over it. There really wasn't any other location on our property accessible for the chipper or truck to drop the chips. Mother also became extremely agitated when she found out my father was planning to manually saw off the limbs of a different tree that had not been discussed; one that she enjoys looking at from her bedroom window, even though it is pressing aggressively into the deck frame. It was quite a bit more drama than I was used to in one day.
Since I was called into my day job for a short task (work is getting sparse for me lately, another growing concern), I returned home early to find the arborist's truck getting ready to dump the load on the intended spot, on top of my new garden area. Fortunately, it wasn't a full-sized pile, and most of it landed beside my actual garden spot and nearer to the side road. I quickly went to work with a shovel and started loading a wagon full of chips, in an effort to free up my garden plot from the suffocating weight of the pile. After finishing about five wagon loads, my karma had finally taken a new turn.
Sister: Hey, would it be okay if my son helps you do some digging with a shovel to load the wagon? If I pay him, he'll do any chores I want.
Creativetruth: Can he rake?
Sister: Oh yeah, he can do that. I'll pay him ten cents a pile, and he can have his neighbor friend help him out.
Within minutes, the mountain which was the sad remains of our beloved tree became the epicenter for children to play and learn how to use tools to work as a team to accomplish something useful.
My sister was encouraging everyone along every step of the way, and letting the children take command with impressive ability. She actively pursues the neighbor boys with kindness, hoping to help her son have an easier time making friends, and to make the neighbors feel more like a part of our family too.
Sister: See what you are doing? When you finish, you'll be able to look at our yard every day when you come home from school, and you'll be able to say, "I helped make that yard look nice," and you can feel proud of your work.
Never had I seen kids this happy to play outside, even on Easter when they are given tons of candy hidden in eggs to find.
This was a race. Money was involved. They could dig, rake, grab sticks, and handle adult sized tools if they wanted, with the parents strangely supporting them. In the world of suburban childhood, this almost never happens. They seized the moment and went all out!
Nephew: How much money have I earned, Mom?
Sister: Hmm, for that much? Oh, I would say fifty cents, so far.
On the front porch my mother, holding a small box of strawberries, arrived to inspect our work. She couldn't believe the flurry of productive activity either.
Mom/Grandma: Hey this looks like the kind of wood they spread out at the parks. I've got some fresh strawberries. I'm going to give it to the neighbor to thank her for helping out.
On the sidewalk my sister was enjoying the scene immensely as I shoveled another wagon load to keep up with the frenzy.
Creativetruth: Let me guess why you are smiling, because you enjoy watching a bunch of young men sweating and doing hard labor, right? Does this make up for all the piles of toys you've had to clean up?
Sister: Not even close.
Neighbor: Maybe about one day's worth.
Creativetruth: Only one day? That much?
The neighbor nodded, knowingly.
My sister brought out the old Tonka brand toys she had been stowing away in the garage for a rainy day like today.
Sister: Fill the truck up with wood, and dump it out to make a new pile. Once you do that, use the steamroller to flatten it out. Did you know our steamroller toy is a collectors item? Tonka doesn't make them anymore. Real steel parts.
The little workers were constantly rustling over the tarp, which disgruntled me at first. I think I asked my nephew once to not walk over it, but then I gave up when I realized my words were not going to have any effect as the three of them rushed around on feet that scampered constantly in random directions. I can always re-seed the garden and start over. Seeds are cheap.
When the pile was half gone from the work we had done, I removed the tarp to see what was left of it.
Hey, that's not bad. I can still work with this.
As we were finishing up, my sister even pitched in with a rake and helped out with some finishing touches to smooth out places the boys lost interest in. I think they were out there for more than an hour all together.
Sister: Good job! Everyone did such a great job, we're going out for treats when we're done.
In the end, they helped me to rake out the wood chips in the entire front yard, and I was able to rescue my garden. We might have one less tree in our yard now, but the tree was a #GivingTree.
Giving Trees are the most magical form of trees. We did not know we had such a tree on our property when we purchased this house a few years ago. Giving Trees go far, far beyond providing lumber and wood resources. They provide a place for children to play. They help kids earn money as they grow up. They teach us the value of time with family. They even find ways to continue to impress us with magical gifts in life many years after they have long since fallen.
Sometimes even the old stump of a Giving Tree become a place to rest and rediscover peace. A place to find ourselves again. A place to gain inspiration for something we never realized we could have, and never knew we needed so much until it was given freely.
Is this the end for the Giving Tree?
Not on my watch.
To be continued...
Thank you for sharing this journey with me. It's been quite a ride this week.
Let me know in the comments below if you've had an electric week, like mine, or felt connected in any way to my words or photos.
it is very sad to have to cut the tree that has long lived in our house and the flowers are very beautiful.tetapi must be cut for safety and security bersama.satu ksmu will surely get a replacement plant @creativetruth very happy to see your child can laugh and play free very nice post my friend.thank you
Oh yay you took cuttings!!! This was a beautiful story :) I'm so glad it ended with so much joy, teamwork and fun with family and friends. What a nice way to remember your special tree.
Well done. Removing trees are always hard work. I had a giant walnut tree that had to be removed. The tree was over 15m tall and the trunks was huge. Removed it 2 years ago still have fire wood.
A couple of years ago, a way bigger tree than that (I owe you the pic, soon will post it) which still is between my parents and neighbors house, started to fall to one side due to a rain season. The tree broke almost the upper side of the wall that was actually kind of supporting the tree, and if it weren't for that wall, maybe our car and my brothers bedroom would have been crushed by the weight of that disaster. The bigger problem was that not the mayor's office|municipal authorithies neither the biggest company in my entire country did anything about it. Me and my parents, also my neighbors tried to reach out, and nobody gave us any help. We managed to find two guys who risking their lives chopped off several big branches, but the main trunk and alive tree is still there. The truth is that we don't have enough resources, neither a company over here that does that kind of work. It remains a danger for the community, and not even a firemen department is active to assist us with that. The broken wall is also still there, and I'm pretty sure that is somehow holding a part of the tree's weight. At least it was a way for us as neighbors to get together, and even though we haven't dealt with the entire situation, I know that this is something that we as a community, society and as families|friends need to work on, to be better and to find our purpose and ways to help and evolve as a town or even an entire country!
I know this may seem a way for me to talk about my situation instead of yours, but only by this story of yours is that I can talk about me. Sharing this experience that you went through, and so beatifully well put is something that I can relate to, and more than that, I think it's a damn good story and overall experience that you manage to tell us in your words and thoughts. I couldn't be more sympathetic and I wish for you to find an even bigger way to make better this opportunity. To show how nature can be transformed in many ways, and the thrill of doing it doesn't translate into just growing food or plants. Sometimes by doing that we don't get the best results, end up with dead plants or rotten seeds, etc. But the truth is that we are trying to make things better.
To have this kind of day is definitely a breath of fresh air, sharing with family and neighbors, and showing suport even at something that we don't neccesarily agree on. It proves that we can grow as well, and we can learn to make a better world! Again, thank you for sharing this. It's a great memory for you to treasure, and as little it may seem, your family and people around you arent that small at all. Cheers!
Never fun having to remove a tree. A few years back we had to take down a couple due to how big they were getting and towering over our house. One hurricane and they would have gone over and done some massive damage to the roof or other parts of the house or worse the neighbor’s house.
I do miss them because they were blocking the neighbors! With how many storms we had last year we lost a few and can start to see people we would rather not. Which is why we were also glad we removed them when we did. Chance our they would have ended up hitting the roof as we lost some big ones to many storms.
Glad to see you turn yours into woodchips and repurposed the tree well. We lost a few last year and just made firewood.
I can't imagine hour scary a hurricane might be. You never know with those high winds if a tree limb, canopy, or who knows what might suddenly crash into your house from down the street somewhere.
You ever try using a tag like #ocd-resteem for when you put a fair amount of effort into one of your blogs? I rarely use the tag but once in a while when I find myself producing something above my normal standard blog.
No I never tried that. I do not know how they pick posts to vote on. I always figure that if people are attracted to a topic, or they follow you, they will vote your posts if they like it.
Great article :) I like reading your posts :) I greet :)