Margaret Cheasebro

Trees do so much to make life pleasant for us. They provide shade and a place for wildlife to live and play. Kids and cats climb them and play around them. How do you say goodbye to a well-loved tree that has become old and hollow inside?

Several years ago, a more than 200-year-old huge spruce tree, which had become a favorite at a family camp, suddenly fell. No one was staying at the camp when the tree fell. It toppled over onto an often-used pathway that led to a creek running through camp. People who stayed at the family camp often walked along the path to get to the spruce which stood beside the creek. Its trunk was so big around that it took several people with hands linked to circle it.

Word quickly spread that the beloved big spruce had fallen. Pieces of bark and splintered wood remained even after the bulk of the tree was cut up and hauled away. People took some of those wood chips and made a variety of different crafts and window boxes with them. Those wood chips and bits of bark still decorate homes as a reminder of how much the tree meant to so many people.

It could have been tragic if the spruce had fallen on a building, but it grew far enough away from any structures that even when its long trunk fell onto the pathway it didn't reach the nearest structure, an outdoor chapel. If it had been close enough to fall on the chapel, the damage would have been catastrophic.

The big spruce turned out to be hollow through much of its interior. It must have had a hard time standing upright in its last months of life.

Though that spruce was at a campground, many people have tall trees growing around their homes. They often grow quite fond and protective of those trees. The decision to cut down an aging and well-loved tree before it can do damage may feel like losing an old friend. But the tree itself, when it gets old and hollow, is suffering. It no longer feels sturdy. It has a hard time drawing nutrition from the ground, sun and atmosphere.

If you own a home surrounded by trees, how do you prepare yourself for the loss of a tree that needs to be cut down before it damages your house? Take photographs of it. If you're good at drawing, paint a picture of it. Plan a meaningful ceremony to say goodbye to the tree. Keep a journal about your experience with the tree from the time you first met it until the end of its life.

If you know someone who's good at working with wood, have them make a table top or something else from part of the tree once it has been cut down. Place it in your home to help remind you of the tree and all it means to you.

Saying goodbye to a tree that has shared many years with you is seldom easy. But it is part of the cycle of life and death. The photographs, drawings, journals, carvings or other keepsakes you make from the tree will ensure that its memory lives on in your heart.

When I pulled up my small garden last week as autumn ended growing season for me, I hoed all the weeds that had hidden under broad vegetable leaves. Up against the chain link fence around my garden, now that vegetable leaves were gone, I found several baby elm sprouts. They had already grown a few inches. With some effort, I pulled them out of the ground by their roots. Baby elms quickly grow long, tenacious roots.

Those baby elms were determined to reproduce in places that protected them from being seen. Unfortunately, they chose locations where they would have no room to thrive. Whenever I found them throughout the summer, I pulled them out. In spite of that, they never gave up.

Baby elms like to hide between rocks or bricks, under vegetable leaves, beside flower stems, anyplace where they're hard to spot. Even though they're tiny, they know instinctively where they will be least detected. It takes constant effort to keep them from taking over my garden.

Now that my garden is hoed and raked with only marigold flowers and lavender still growing, it looks a little bare. The marigold and lavender plants did a great job of keeping squash bugs away from my butternut, spaghetti, delicata, and acorn squash all summer.

It is nice to have extra time now that the garden doesn't claim as much attention. I thought I would forget about it for a while and focus on other projects. But I often catch myself thinking about what I'll plant next year. In spite of the need to frequently battle baby elm sprouts, there's something about gardening that never gets old.

When people are sick or experience an emotional upheaval, they often have a hard time staying grounded. Instead of feeling connected to the good old terra firma, they seem to be floating off somewhere. Talk to them, and they're a little flighty and unattached. Their mind wanders, making them unfocused.

How do you help someone like that? If they can walk, take them outside and sit with them near a tree. Trees are so attached to the Earth with their roots that their groundedness can have a positive affect on whoever feels a little flighty, unfocused, or unattached.

If they are too sick to go outside, buy a potted plant, something rooted in soil. Put that plant in their hospital room or bedroom where they can easily see it as they lie in bed. They may get a sense of rootedness from the plant. It could help them feel more grounded.

Talk with them about ways to feel more grounded. Have them imagine they are lying on green grass and feeling the firmness of the Earth through their bodies. Or imagine they are on a beach half buried in pleasantly warm sand. That feeling of being attached to the Earth helps people feel more connected to their own life in this present moment. It can help them heal faster and feel more enthusiastic about wanting to get well.

If they can't get outside and plants are not allowed inside, play a game with them. Each of you imagine a tree you have seen that made an impression on you. Take turns describing the tree you remember, what its bark looked like, how its roots grew into the soil, how you felt when you were near it. Whoever isn't doing the remembering should listen carefully. Just remembering the tree can help a person feel more grounded. And just being listened to can make them feel more whole.

If you have a hard time staying focused, if you frequently daydream or find yourself distracted, trees may be able to help.

How could a tree help with any of those things? Trees, by their nature, are rooted to one spot. They don't move around or flit from place to place. They keep grounded by sending their roots deep into the Earth.

If you spend time near trees, just being around them can help you feel calmer. It may not always be easy for trees to stay rooted to the ground, unable to physically move to another location. Yet, they have managed to do it well. Trees demonstrate by their very presence that it is possible to stay focused and grounded.

Trees can be damaged or destroyed by fire, flood, tornado or by human activity. This is a sad development. Yet, many trees successfully live in their rooted locations for many decades, sometimes centuries. These are the trees it can help us to spend time around.

Not only do they stay rooted in one place, but, among other things, they provide shade, shelter for animals, and make our yards and neighborhoods beautiful.

Whenever you feel the need, spend time near a tree. Notice the details of what it looks like, from the texture of its bark and the shape of its leaves or needles to the way its trunk attaches to the ground.

That kind of focus helps to calm our minds, which can swirl with many details, worries and frustrations. Anything that can help us focus so we forget those troubles for a few moments will help us feel refreshed.

After you've spent some time around trees, it may surprise you to notice how much more focused and grounded you feel. Trees help us enjoy life a little more.

In August 2020, the CZU Complex fire burned 18,000 acres of the Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Located in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California, it is the state's oldest park. It contains redwoods that are sometimes more than 2,000 years old.

Even today, almost one year after the fire, some of the park's trees still smolder, according to a June 18, 2021 article in The Guardian Weekly. Some of the challenges now are to decide how to rebuild the park to make it more accessible to visitors and how to make it more resilient.

Some huge redwoods that people saw in 1902, when the park was founded, will never be seen by visitors again, except in pictures. They perished in the fire that gobbled up 97 percent of the park. The fire also destroyed the park's headquarters building, other facilities, and a variety of structures such as foot bridges that guided visitors through the trees.

The fire's CZU abbreviation refers to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit. That unit is the administrative division for San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco counties.

There is a concerted effort by people in California's state park system to save as many of the park's old-growth trees as possible. Many are favorites of visitors. One of them is the Auto Tree. It has been photographed at different times with horses and buggies and with trucks backed into its large opening that was created by previous fires. Though the Auto Tree suffered in the fire, green offshoots at its base indicate it is very much alive. Time will tell if is strong enough to remain standing.

When the park was founded, fewer visitors came to state parks. Today, people throng to state parks. Providing them with an enjoyable experience that is safe for the trees and for visitors requires more planning than it did more than a century ago. On top of that, climate change creates difficulties such as hotter temperatures, more drought conditions, and bigger fires.

Even so, there are glimmers of hope as wildflowers push through fire blackened remains on the forest floor in Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Green sprouts emerge from fire damaged trees. Sounds of insects and chirping birds fill the air.

Eventually, people will visit the park again, though it will not look like it did earlier. In these challenging times when the changes in our climate can create catastrophic damage, the creative human spirit and the resilience of trees still give us hope.

A tall wooden fence separates my back yard from my neighbors' yard. In their back yard grows a majestic, towering pine tree that drapes some of its branches over the fence. They provide shade for flowers that grow in my back yard.

Every morning the branches create a shadow design on the fence. They form especially artistic patterns between 8 and 9 a.m. If I wait until late in the morning to observe them, the shadows have become too big to create much of a contrast with the fence.

When I watch those shadows, I sometimes think they are a bit like the shadow within us. "Our shadow is made up of the thoughts, emotions, and impulses that we find too painful, embarrassing, or distasteful to accept," said the late self-help author, coach, lecturer and teacher Debbie Ford. She believed our shadow is one of the most valuable gifts available to us. Ford is perhaps best known for her New York Times best selling book, The Dark Side of the Light Chasers. In it she shows readers how to use spiritual practices and modern psychology to deal in a healthy way with their shadow.

Ford explained more about our shadow in The Shadow Effect, the book she co-wrote with Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williamson. "We have all hidden away and repressed pain-filled, shame-filled moments, and, over time, these emotions harden into our shadow," she wrote. "These are the unexpressed fears, the horrifying shame, the gnawing guilt. These are the issues of the past that we have never faced."

In the mornings, I enjoy looking at the shadows the pine tree forms on my side of the fence. If I want to see the shadows at their most visible, I have to do it at the right time. Noon will be too late. In the afternoon, everything is in shadow without any patterns at all. I must deliberately choose mornings to see the display of light and shadow on the fence.

In the same way, if we want to examine the painful shadow within us, we must do it in a deliberate way. "You have to confront the very parts of yourself that you fear most to find what you have been looking for, because the mechanism that drives you to conceal the darkness is the same mechanism that has you hide your light. What you've been hiding from can actually give you what you've been trying hard to achieve," Ford wrote in The Shadow Effect.

Our shadow contains both fear and potential healing. It isn't easy to face what's in our shadow, especially what we fear most. But it is well worth the effort if we want to heal the pain and shame we've experienced in the past.

I am constantly amazed by how the simple act of observing nature can lead to thoughts that provide me with an opportunity to heal. No matter how old or wise we get, we will always be on a journey toward continued healing. I am thankful for trees and for Debbie Ford and many other wonderful teachers who help us find a way back to wholeness.

Some people take amazing photographs of the designs they find in trees. Junipers and pinons are two kinds of trees that often take on wonderful shapes in this area of high plateau country in northwest New Mexico.

Not too long after I bought my house surrounded by front and back yards, a juniper tree in the front yard needed to be trimmed. Over the years, it had sent out a thick branch from near the base of the juniper. It stretched about 15 feet across the yard. The branch was drooping and struggling to survive. My handyman cut it off near the base of the tree trunk. Since that time the branch stump has taken on an interesting design.

In creative moments, I try to imagine lots of different things it could look like. It could be a sideways face with the two dark colored holes on one side becoming eyes. The smaller round circle on the other end could be a mouth creating an "oh" shape. One morning I glanced out of the kitchen window and for a split second thought I was staring into the face of a wise old man. Then the branch stump quickly took on the shape I see every day.

If you take a walk in your neighborhood, you might spot several different kinds of trees with interesting shapes. It could be fun to see how many designs you can imagine coming from those shapes.

Some people drive along back roads in the countryside to see how many interesting tree designs and stumps they can find. They often take a camera with them to record their discoveries. Some members of photography clubs have prints made of their most impressive photographs. They frame them and enter them into art shows. Others who aren't members of any particular club have fun taking pictures and posting them on Facebook, on their own web page, or on one of many other on-line sites where people can enjoy looking at their photography.

It's delightful to see how creative that people can be and what amazing shapes they find as they keep their eyes wide open for delightful discoveries. The next time you're not sure how to spend part of your day, try driving or hiking around to see what artistic tree wonders you can find.

My neighbor had her silver maple tree trimmed by a professional tree trimming company this week. The tree had grown so much that it spread over the roof of her house, and it had lots of dead limbs. They created a potential safety hazard in case of fire or other traumatic event.

Her trimmed tree looks quite beautiful now. Its "haircut" makes it point majestically to the sky. Trees, like people's hair, need to be trimmed every now and then to help them look and feel more comfortable and healthier.

I sometimes wonder if trees could talk what they might say if they knew they were going to be trimmed. "No, thanks. I'll pass. I like my branches just the way they are." "A trimming!? That could kill me! Don't do it!!" "If you cut some of my branches off, I'll be the laughing stock of the neighborhood. What are you trying to do? Humiliate me?"

On the other hand, trees might want to thank us, if they could, for helping them gain a leaner, healthier, more distinguished look.

Do you remember the time you or any of your children got their first haircut? It may have been a scary time, especially if the person getting the haircut was a little child. Will it hurt? Will I die when my hair is being cut? I want to keep my hair, all of it, now and forever! Don't make me sit in that strange chair!!

If trees can feel scared or apprehensive or upset, my neighbor's tree might have felt a little traumatized. When we as humans are faced with a new experience, we might feel scared, apprehensive or upset too.

It's in talking with other people who have gone through a similar experience that we discover it's probably a good thing. Or maybe we read about the procedure in a book or ask the professionals doing it how they're going to carry it out.

Perhaps trees have a way of reassuring each other when faced with a new or challenging experience. If so, I hope my neighbor's silver maple received comforting reassurance that all would be well. It looks quite elegant and beautiful after its trim.

A juniper tree in my front yard has an interesting shape. Its main trunk died sometime before I bought the property. I had the trunk cut down to a stump. The tree remains alive, because two large branches grow out of one side of the stump. Those branches thrive. They stand tall, as though they are another tree.

A couple of years ago, the tree branches started looking sick. Some of their needles turned brown. I couldn't figure out why, because they got plenty of water. I hosed water all around the base of the stump, especially on the side that supported the two branches. In spite of getting that water, the branches didn't improve.

One day I decided to pour water into the hole in the center of the stump. That stump guzzled the water. No matter how much water I poured into that hole, it wanted more. Eventually, water reached the top of the stump hole and began to spill over. Its thirst had finally been quenched.

After watering the juniper that way for a few days, the branches began to look healthier. The needles grew green again. The tree began to thrive. Ever since then, I have watered that tree through the hole in the middle of its stump. The tree continues to thrive!

That experience with the juniper made me wonder how often we think we are nurturing ourselves when maybe we're not. Are we giving ourselves what we really need, or are we missing what will help us thrive? Whatever that missing thing is, when we find it and provide ourselves with more of it, we start feeling better. Fun, adventure and delight return to us.

What does it take to find that special thing that will return enthusiasm to us? I suspect it will be unique for each of us. To find it, pay attention to what you long for. It could be something quite simple, or it might be more complex.

The key is to pay attention to how you feel, what you wish for, what you miss. When you find whatever that hole in the stump is for you, give it more of whatever it is you've been wishing for, needing, or wanting. Do it consistently, and you may find yourself thriving just like my juniper tree.

I was delighted last week to see that the yucca in my front yard is blooming. Its white blossoms look so beautiful, and there are several clumps of flowers. Yucca are common plants to find in the area of northwest New Mexico where I live.

I always thought they were cactus plants, but they aren't. Instead they are in a plant family called Agavaceae. I had no idea they were an agave-like plant. I learned that from an interesting site, https://davesgarden.com. You can learn about all kinds of plants there.

Some yucca look like a spiky shrub. Others grow almost as tall as trees. The yucca in my yard look like the ones I see when I walk out into the countryside. They have long green blades with sharp points, and their flowers are white. When my son was a pre-schooler many years ago, we used to walk around the country property where we once lived north of Aztec, NM. We would ooh and ahh at the yucca in bloom. We also searched for several different varieties of blooming cacti. If we spotted them at the right time in the spring, their gorgeous yellow or pink blossoms made us smile.

Centuries ago, Anasazi and Pueblo Indians in northwest New Mexico used to use yucca roots to make shampoo. They used them for other things as well. If you take a trip to the Aztec Ruins National Monument in Aztec, NM, you will find out lots more about the yucca and how useful it was to people hundreds of years ago.

Yucca appear in lots of yards in the subdivision where I live. They don't need much water and take very little maintenance. I have to keep a sharp eye out to be sure they don't try to sprout in another spot in my yard. As much as I love my yucca, I don't need any more!

I was intrigued to learn that yucca plants survive because they are pollinated by the yucca moth. The female yucca works at night. She smells the sweet scent of the yucca flowers and flies to them. Once there, she gathers pollen from the stamens of one plant. Then she deposits that pollen on the stigma of another plant. What she does in the process is to lay her eggs in the yucca flowers themselves. They are protected there and have a food source when they develop into the larva stage. Yucca moths have just one purpose, and that is to pollinate the family of yucca plants. Nature can be quite specialized!

If you want to learn more about yucca plants, one good source is www.newmexicoenchantment.com/p/yucca-plant.html with no period after html. You can learn a lot about yucca at your local nursery as well.