I’m talking about the death of two trees which probably doesn’t seem like a lot to other people, who go about their day and simply pass by these magnificent tall friends, but means a lot to this nature lover.

My love of and affinity with trees is evident on my blog, as the background banner picture with gnarled roots is a friend in my neighborhood at home. I have also written on the magic of trees. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/2016/08/outside-the-circle-top-ten-magickal-facts-about-trees/2/

As I listen to chainsaws blast, I hold tears in my throat. It’s especially sad because the other week, I was sick in bed listening to what I thought was just the earliest spring ever, and enjoying the singing birds everywhere it seemed. All the new babies were chirping and the whole complex was aflutter.

Then the rains came to San Diego with a really bad storm and one of our trees fell over. No one was hurt but part of a roof was damaged as well as a balcony fence and a satellite dish. Soon after, an entire tree removal crew was on the scene and they sliced up the whole tree and put it in the shredder. All that was left was what looked like pencil shavings.

This tree had a friend on the hill as well. Because they felt this other tall friend posed a risk of falling in two weeks of soggy rained on soil, they cut this one down too. The work went extremely fast and I was amazed at the stark contrast when they were done. The hole in my heart was matched by the holes in the lawn on that hill, now bare against the sky imposing like an unwanted intruder.

You see, these trees were my solace, my companions when I visited with the Full Moons. I talked to owls that had visited me in these trees this past year. At least 20 hummingbirds that I fed, enjoyed those trees. I was awed by their majestic company every time I moved about the apartment complex. We have many trees, that is what brought me to this foresty haven, but these elder trees were the wise ones that are no more.

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair               Joyce Kilmer

Now I know how they must feel to see the pillage in a rainforest. The shelter from the sun and heat on my windows and balcony are no more as well. Our entire neighborhood ecosystem has changed, and all the little birds that made those two trees home are now overcrowding a little tree in front of my place. I maintained a wonderful circle of different seeds around this tree from the beginning at this home, but now the movement in and around this tree is huge.

I got to know the two tree cutters on their return to cut up a stump from the original tree that fell. You see, I asked for just a teeny slab so I could make it into an altar of commemoration to these tree friends that are now gone. My remembrance to the two trees that once were. My humble ode to two trees.

As powers of magic round us move,

Now let time’s self dissolve and fade.

Here in place between the worlds

May we be one with nature made.                Doreen Valiente