“Trees are in love with the earth, the earth is in love with the trees. The birds are in love with the trees, the trees are in love with the birds. The earth is in love with the sky, the sky is in love with the earth. The whole existence exists in a great ocean of love. Let love be your worship, let love be your prayer.” …Osho
I’m thankful to be walking our dog Marley more regularly since I’m feeling better. Our late afternoon jaunt takes us to the little park a few blocks away. Today’s tree love shares some of my favorite trees living in the park.
The first group of trees were featured in a previous post when the middle tree was cut down a few years ago. It was not doing well and leaning low over the playground. Now, the stump has aged and serves as a canvas for carving initials.
The next gallery includes more of my favorites from the park. I don’t see the usual option to add captions, so you if you click each photo, you get the titles I saved them into my laptop with. The first photo includes my husband David and Marley. The last one shows a long root from the bench tree running along the surface of the earth hinting at a vast underground network.
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Thursday Tree Love is hosted by Parul Thakur on the second and fourth Thursday of each month.
Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is ….. “tree.” Use the word “tree” or write about a tree. Any kind of tree. Enjoy! You can learn more about Stream of Consciousness Saturday and find more streams at the blog of our excellent host, Linda Hill.
Woohoo! I get to write about trees two posts in a row. So many possibilities, but I’m not to plan. Hmmm. There’s a sycamore in my yard close to the house. Who’s been leaning for years since a hurricane whose name I’ve forgotten. She’s sent up a slender new trunk, there’s probably another name for this skinny spike, not really a trunk, but the point is, for balance. In 50 years, it might be another trunk. The tree leans over my neighbors back yard mostly, not her house, and has survived and stood strong for many subsequent hurricanes. I bet the roots go under my house and her house, maybe even across the street, joining with other roots of the many trees in my urban forest.
I’ve been reading the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Understory. Almost finished. Slow reader. It’s disturbing and beautiful. At first, being trained first as a technical writer (well one class), I thought the book was wordy. I’ve had to look up a word almost every time I pick it up. But now, it’s become poetic. The book is about several people from all over the country/world who come to love trees and desire to save them. The scientist writes about how trees communicate with each other in the air and underground, which brings us back to my urban forest. So many leaves on my pathways now, making them soft and covering tiny animals and plants.
The larger animals, like squirrels, who have had the run of the yard for a couple of years since we have not had a dog and Mama Cat lives inside. Now we have adopted a dog. A big one. Bigger and more energetic than we would have chosen. It’s a longish story and related to the fact that my daughter and her fiancé already have two big dogs in their apartment. Marley is their brother. Their mother, Leilu, my grand dog, just crossed the rainbow bridge at age 7 due to cancer. Marley’s first adopter called Ayla to say she could no longer care for him for financial reasons. Last night was his first night here and he whined enough for David to go get him from his crate (which he supposedly has slept most of his 6 years) and slept with him in the spare bedroom. Marley is going to be a challenge, especially where Mama Cat is concerned. I’m reading about that, scheduling obedience consultations, and we go to the vet Monday.
Yesterday, during his first run in my backyard, Marley rolled in the leaves and something very stinky. I’m glad my daughter gave him a bath. He’s a husky / pit bull mix (a pitsky), very energetic and LOVES to be with people. He’s very curious about the smell of the other animal in the house, but we’re taking that slow. Marley is not allowed in the cat side of the house.
Marley with floppy ear
Marley is a good boy.
Thanks for the bath, Ayla
Mama Cat’s New Catio with reinforced fencing over the screen.
I heard this song yesterday right before I read the prompt. It goes “happy and well.” I remembered it as healthy and well. Maybe that’s because I made up a song to the tune of “I’m so Pretty” that goes, “I’m so healthy.” But anyway, this song below is fun and easy to learn. I’m a firm believer in singing and affirmations. I also like her outfit.
I’m wishing all of you good thoughts of being well from deep down in my heart.
I wrote the above on Friday evening which is usually my habit with SoCS. Now it’s Saturday morning and time to publish the post. I have to be honest. Though most of my posts are positive, because that’s what I think the world needs most, I’m not always positive. Sometimes I have waves of anxiety or sadness and grief, like this morning. I’ve been tired a lot lately. I tell myself it’s allergies. Maybe it is partly. So much is blooming. But it’s important to acknowledge all of our feelings.
Wild geese are going over right now as I write this. Their honking reminding me of Mary Oliver’s song. I meant to type poem. No, song…. I’ve shared this poem before here on “Anything is Possible.” The geese tell me to share it again.
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
Mary Oliver
Experience teaches us that the waves come and go. We learn to surf or to dive deep. The waves always pass.
…
Today’s prompt was: “deep.”
Dive deep into the Stream of consciousness with Linda Hill at:
Here are the rules:
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
3. I will post the prompt here on my blog every Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The,’” or will simply be a single word to get you started.
4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.
5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later or go to the previous week by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find below the “Like” button on my post.
6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!
7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.
8. Have fun!
Spread the word:
I wrote this for the sycamore tree that lives in my backyard. She’s still standing strong after Hurricane Matthew in spite of her westward lean. I imagined her roots holding on to the roots of the other trees during the storm.
After three days without electricity, the lights came back on Tuesday night. I’m still trying to catch up on blogs and emails. It will be a long time before I take electricity and warm showers for granted. But my friend and I never lost power.
The fact that I am a tree-hugger, is not the confession. That’s something I’m proud of. The dilemma is what to do about the trees growing too close to the house. I waited several months for a hard freeze, hoping that maybe the trees would be sleeping and dormant, before removing several young trees growing right next to my father’s house. My husband couldn’t do it for me, because he was recovering from hernia surgery. My father is 84, and I wouldn’t want him to do it with his health challenges. We borrowed a tree-puller, an amazingly powerful, yet simple tool. Still some of the oak roots were deep and required considerable digging, clipping, and pulling.
It was dark by the time I finished the job. Even though the temperature had dipped below 40 degrees, I’d worked up quite a sweat. Yet, the job was harder for me emotionally than it was physically, because I love trees. It was like those jobs I learned to set my jaw at back when I was single and had to do the hard things myself- or thought I did anyway.
I chopped up most of the saplings and seedlings, hoping they wouldn’t suffer so long that way. I decided to save the smallest sapling, a four foot pine, and two seedlings by wrapping them in a plastic bag and driving them home. They are doing okay in my kitchen, in a bucket of potting soil, until I plant them in my backyard – maybe Saturday if the weather feels right.
Along with the sapling, I’m collecting homeless poinsettias.
My church always has a lot of poinsettias leftover from Christmas Eve. Even after people have taken home the plants they want, there are usually 10 to 20 left unclaimed.
I worry that many poinsettias just get thrown in the trash after Christmas. The very least we can do is compost them. I’d heard poinsettias were poisonous, but have learned they’re not as toxic as I thought, according to this Mayo Clinic article.
Of the 15 or so poinsettias left behind at church, I brought the four worst looking plants home to compost, unless I can hold out until warm weather and plant them in the back yard. At least that way they have a chance. I left several other poinsettias (the ones with leaves still attached) at church with the plan to plant some in the church yard when winter is done.
Normally, outdoor poinsettias do not survive the winter here in the Carolinas, but anything is possible. One spring, I noticed something bright red along the fence in my backyard. I had no idea what it could be. When I got closer, I realized it was a poinsettia I had planted the previous spring and forgotten about. That winter must have been a mild one, or the poinsettia was a tough one.
Maybe I’ll pot one or two poinsettias and keep them inside, like the three year old below. I’d heard that if you keep an older poinsettia in the dark for about a month it will turn red. I put the one in the photo in our church utility closet for about two weeks in November. When I brought it out, tiny new leaves were light red. All the new growth since then has been a pinkish-red. Like magic!
This three year old poinsettia bloomed red leaves when it came out of the closet.
I wonder if we will be able to use any of last year’s poinsettias for Christmas Eve of 2016!
Thrift and consignment stores are popping up all over. My husband manages one for the Rescue Mission. They get more clothes and books donated than they can keep up with. More than they have room for. He’s found a way to re-donate the extras. They get a lot of food donated too. In the job he had before, he saw grocery stores throwing away so much food. It was astounding and sad. Fortunately some of the food gets donated to non-profit agencies…… I’m getting to the money and evil part, eventually, maybe.
So how can there be so many clothes donated? The books I understand, because people now use computers and phones more to read. But people keep buying clothes. More and more clothes. I get most of my clothes from second hand stores. I get most of my furniture second hand, too. It’s mostly a recycling thing. And a little a frugal thing.
Are we buying more stuff than we need? And what else can we do with our money? I don’t want to buy new wood furniture, because someone had to cut down a tree for that.
Yes, lets get back to the forest!
My roots are in nature.
I see God in nature. I connect with God in nature.
I also see God in Jesus. I connect with God through Jesus.
Some people connect with God through prayer and songs. These work for me too.
Some find God through service work, through various books, or religious leaders.
Some don’t find God at all. Part of me says I’m supposed to write how sad that is.
But you know what? I don’t feel all that sad about it. We all have a choice. We all have value. Regardless of whether we have found God, or Jesus, or Muhammad. Whether we are rich or poor or smart with numbers, or computers or money or whether we know how to make sassafras tea out of tree roots. We all have value.
I used to say, I didn’t care about money. But I do sort of like having enough for my mortgage and vet bills and food and my second hand clothes and gasoline….. and I’d like to travel more…… I like the things money can buy. Some of the things. But money can’t buy the sky. Money can’t buy true love.
And as my husband says his grandfather used to say, ” You can’t eat it.”
The desire for things and money is part of the problem, part of what is putting our world at risk. But there is something more. A lack of peace. A lack of love. We need more tolerance and cooperation.
That’s all for now. Except that I wish I’d written more about roots.
Here’s a poem, containing roots, I memorized many years ago from the Lord of the Rings….or maybe it was TheHobbit. This is how I remember it:
All that is gold does not glitter.
Not all those who wander are lost.
The old that is strong does not whither.
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken.
A light from the Shadows shall Spring.
Renewed shall be blade that was broken.
The crownless again shall be king.
JRR Tolkein
Today’s Stream of Consciousness post prompt was “route/root.”
If you’d like to jump into the stream, start here:
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.
4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.
5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.
6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!
7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.
Anything is Possible! 