unleashing alternative futures: what if trees were beings?
22 Sep 2022today, a 200 year-old tree was felled. it was time and it wasn’t time. what is/was time to a being that lived 200 years? what is a year even?
as i sat and watched the clouds move through the new hole in the sky, i ached. my chest, cavernous. what do you do with a 200 year-old hole?
now i walk through the street wondering, wandering. how much of this sky is hol(e)y?
i look left. my shins and calves hum. energy flows through me. is this what it feels like to see anew? to have fresh eyes? a (w)hole, newly visible?
ki was glorious. i sit and squish moist soil with my butt. the energy of the land that held this tree rushes into me, through me.
700? no. more. 800! 800 years the land tells me.
“800 years we held each other. feeding each other, creating space for each other. filling in the gaps. reaching new heights. diving to new depths. what a time.”
i fold myself over, pressing my forehead to the soil. hoping, wishing, for a small gift. what gifts might come from land that held a being for 800 years?
thoughts:
- this story came through during the UAF autumn equinox call.
- one of our crew (l) brought big grief from some 200 yo oak trees that are in the process of being cut down two houses away.
- another of our crew (s) lead us in a guided tree meditation and then we wrote.
- did you know that oak trees can live to 1500 years and beyond?
- as we shared our writings with each other, we tapped into some of tolkien’s wisdom around treetime… see “don’t be hasty” or the transcript of the scene below. those last two lines… oof. too goodt.
Treebeard: We have just agreed… [falls asleep]
Merry Brandybuck: Yes?
Treebeard: [wakes up] I have told your names to the Entmoot and we have agreed… you are not Orcs. [smiles]
Pippin Took: Well, that’s good news.
Merry Brandybuck: What about Saruman? Have you come to a decision about him?
Treebeard: Now, don’t be hasty, master Meriadoc…
Merry Brandybuck: Hasty? Our friends are out there! They need our help! They cannot fight this war on their own!
Treebeard: War, yes. It affects us all, tree, root and twig. But you must understand, young Hobbit, it takes a long time to say anything in Old Entish. And we never say anything unless it is worth taking a long time to say.
words / writing / post-processing
402w / 20min / 20min