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Many, if not all of us, know trees that hold us, stay with us, remind us of another time and place, or better still, throw us more curious connections.
By Bob Doyle
I was living in a share house with my girlfriend. It was a terrace and we had the upstairs, front bedroom. Life was sweet but chaotic. A tree growing in our neighbour’s yard hung over part of our balcony, offering shade, and partially blocked the view of parked cars and the road. And it was always a solace. It was a white cedar.
We moved from that house and I didn’t think of the white cedar again. Then we separated.
Many years later I met and married the person who has been dear to me for thirty four years. About five years into our marriage when discussing where we had lived in various terraces, flats and houses in Sydney and elsewhere in our 20’s, she told me that her brother had lived next door to the house shaded by the white cedar, prior to my arrival there. And that their mother had given him the seedling as a present. It was the same tree. It had come from her family home. He had gone but the tree grew.
I never met my wife’s mother as she passed away eighteen months before the marriage.
Later, when my wife and I built a house together a white cedar mysteriously grew at the front. It offered shade over the deck and blocked the view of the neighbour’s house across the road.
I always think of my wife’s mother speaking to me through both these white cedars, asking me to take good care of her daughter and to love her completely and exclusively.
Tea for Trees invites you to think about a tree (or trees) that is a favourite of yours, that is special for you in some way, and to write a short story (or poem) about what this tree (trees) means to you.
From time to time all those who submit their story (or poem) will go into a draw to win an original painting of a koala by a local artist.
