Arboreal Suicide

I have another tree reflection. We have a beautiful, huge tulip/poplar tree in our back yard.  It's the species that the City of Falls Church chose for it's 2011 tree of the year. It's been a bumper crop year for its seedlings. I have been pulling them up all over the yard, including in the front.

Last week before we headed out of town, I had two tree companies come give me estimates for clearing out all the dead limbs from all my trees. I don't want to deal with the damage they could cause this winter or next spring. One good sized branch fell from from our oak into our yard in early June, spearing the ground where I had been mowing just minutes before. Another fell from a non-flowering cherry into our neighbor's yard the day Jeff died. Graciously Maria said she would deal with it's cleanup. Luckily, none of the children in her daycare were out back when it fell.

Back to our huge poplar tree. Looking around back, one tree guy noticed insect damage in the bark, and pulled a section of bark away from the base. Underneath, the wood looked black, and had a hole in it. He stuck in a twig all the way and asked for a screwdriver. I brought a long one. That went straight in all the way. He asked for something longer. I brought out a crowbar which went in for over a foot with no resistance. Uh oh. Not good news.

He noted a root which had, decades ago, wrapped itself around the base of the tree instead of going out into the yard. He said that this root has choked the tree in that area causing it to decay, inviting insects to aid in the process. This beautiful, huge tree has been committing arboreal suicide (Max's term for it), necessitating it's removal soon.

How often do we act as if everything is okay in our lives, yet by some perhaps either intentional or inadvertent action we choke off the possibilities of fully living, maybe even leading to great damage? It is important to keep in close relationship with those who will speak truth and help us clear away those things that would choke out life.

Thanks be to God that there are possibilities for hope and life beyond. Forgiveness and redemption offer new life for us. And even the wood of the tree can be used again.