Mary Lewis (aka Caroline Court) won the city of Brookfield, Wisconsin’s 2020 Arbor Day writing competition in the narrative essay category.
Reader comments:
“Powerful story…” Liz D.
“...Heart wrenching and heart warming. What a gift!” Nancy R.
“Very beautiful…” Mary K.
“What a winner…” Rick H.
The prompt: When I look at this tree…
The essay:
When I was a 10-year-old girl and my 12-year-old brother was dying of leukemia. my family could not be consoled. During the last two weeks of his life, my brother lay in a hospital bed with my parents by his side. No visitors under the age of 12 were allowed, so my younger sister and I did homework in the hospital lobby when we weren’t in school. Even when my parents were home they were practically catatonic. So sometimes I would get on my bike and escape on a trail into a nearby wooded area. I found solace stopping beneath a tree marveling how it could sway and bend with the wind but not break Sometimes sunshine would filter through the leaves, and I thought the dappling light beneath the tree’s canopy was God talking to me in code. I did not feel alone.
I would pedal home and somehow bring with me some peace from that natural sanctuary I had just visited.
A concerned neighbor asked, “Do you feel safe biking into the woods alone?”
“Why would I not feel safe?” I answered.
“There could be a bear or a wolf or a bad man in there.”
“I never saw a bear or a wolf or a man on the trail. Besides,” and I hesitated here because she might think me ridiculous,”God speaks to me through the trees.” But she didn’t laugh. My neighbor hugged me and didn’t ask any more questions.
Now I am 71 years old, and I find my country cannot be consoled. There is fear and anxiety, a raging boogeyman of a pandemic, Covid-19, social distancing, isolation and more. I don’t have a bicycle anymore. And I don’t live near that wooded area. I know because of my age, I am considered high risk. But when I look at this tree, I remember the comfort and companionship of trees, the peace and reassurance they gave me. I feel calm now as I did then. I feel safe.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Winner of the City of Brookfield 2021 Arbor Day Essay Contest.
Prompt: Trees are important to our environment because…
The essay:
Arbor Day of Biosphere 9, 2099
Dear 2021 Kid,
My teacher assigned me to write a letter to an imaginary fellow 8th grader who lived in the year 2021 when kids could still breathe outside.
I live in a biodome with my parents and two other families. We moved here because the atmosphere outside contains hardly any oxygen. Outside the dome, breathing is dangerous; trees that filter carbon and sulfur dioxide out of the air are mostly gone now wo we stay home (in here).
There are no cattle of dairy industries now so we don’t eat meat or drink milk and nothing is made of leather. We do eat fish and have belts and other accessories made of the skin of eels and tilapia cause we grow fish in giant tanks.
We create oxygen by nurturing forest domes in our sphere. Since we use trees for life support not for lumber, we have no paper products, not even toilet paper. You are probably wondering, what do you use? We use sponges which we grow that we disinfect with vinegar which we make.
Nothing is thrown out. Whatever waste we create is repurposed We pasteurize human poop to use as fertilizer for plants or to feed our fish.
Being a resident here is a little like being an inmate I would like to go outside the domes if I could (forbidden by my parents) and climb trees if I could find any. We have a rainforest and a savanna dome, but tree health is so important, we’re supposed to leave them alone.
On special holidays, like my birthday, we get to pick apples or other fruit (bandanna is my favorite) or crack nuts. One time we even had maple syrup.
I wonder about your people. If I could talk to them, I would ask: What were you thinking about trees? I read that in 2021 150 acres of oxygen-rich rainforests were destroyed every day to clear land for other uses.
My dad says it was mainly political. I think it was mainly dumb (no offense).
Sincerely,
Adam
…………………………………………………………………….
First place narrative essay in City of Brookfield 2222 Arbor Day writing contest.
Prompt: Why plant trees?
The essay:
Teenager: My parents, other people, too, think I’m nuts.
Therapist: Are you crazy?
Teenager: I communicate with trees. My parents think that’s crazy.
Therapist: Do you communicate in English?
Teenager: Not in words. More like I feel their consciousness. Like I know they are communicating with each other and they are letting me in.
Therapist: Is it scary for you?
Teenager: What’s scary is that they’re scared. They know forests are being destroyed to make room for other things, but the forests aren’t being replaced.
Therapist: Why do you think the trees are communicating with you?
Teenager: My AP biology teacher gave me extra credit for reading Overstory, an eco-novel that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2019. The author believes trees in forests do communicate with on another. I believe him. Maybe the trees sense in me a kindred spirit.
Therapist: Not sure I follow.
Teenager: I get impatient with people who don’t pay attention to trees.
Where I live, some landscaping about 30 years ago included Austrian Pines. They are dead or diseased now. In the forests where they came from, natural fires would have killed off the disease and encouraged new growth, but forest fires don’t happen in back yards in Brookfield.
After I told my neighbor to rake up pine needles in his yard and burn them, he said, “Mind your own business, lunatic!”
Therapist: How did you feel about that?
Teenager: Pissed!
I worry about other things, too. Trees like lodgepole pine, some cypress and giant sequoias need fire to melt the resins that encapsulate their seeds; trees like Japanese maple, apple and oak need cold snaps; and seeds of guava, those apples and some coffee trees can be consumed, digested and expelled by animals as waste, then grow. Some seeds need to be smashed! This specialized germination of seeds happens in natural forests. I’m worried about deforestation, that the wonders of forests are being mowed down.
Therapist: I don’t see crazy here. I see an environmental activist incubating.
Teenager: What about my parents?
Therapist: They need to be part of this conversation. Your neighbor, too.