Elegy for a Tree

Once upon a time nine years ago, I wandered into the backyard nursery of a lady with a spectacular green thumb. Her garden/nursery was filled with all sorts of amazing cuttings that grew freely and wildly. In the midst of this jungle of generation, a lone Curly Willow grew quietly in a 5-gallon pot. I had never seen such a pretty tree and soon she had a home with me.
She stayed in her pot for the first year and then I decided to free her into the yard. I picked a spot next to our fence with the assurance that shade would soon cover our patio. And so it did.

For eight seasons, my beautiful tree provided shade, shed its leaves, and filtered the rain in the spring. Birds found shelter there and nesting material was picked with abandon.

Curly willow example -not my yard.


But sadly, two years after putting in a brick patio, my pretty willow had another growth spurt pushing her to 40+ feet. Outward she stretched her roots, untimately lifting my bricks and tearing apart my Celtic cross design we had so carefully created. I knew my tree's days were numbered. And so it was that today I came home for lunch and found this.






I didn't know it would hurt so much.