For an Old Apple Tree That’s Gone

Last week an old apple tree in our front yard had to be cut down. It hadn’t been doing well for years, and it had stopped making apples. The apples it used to bring forth were very small, maybe slightly bigger than a golf ball, and green. Because we don’t use herbicides or pesticides on anything, most of the apples were lumpy and funny-looking. But I was very fond of it and thought of it as a sweet and gentle tree. When it was cut down, I saw that it was hollow all through the middle.

The day after it was cut, I put a pot of pansies on the stump to cheer up the tree. Then, on Tuesday I made a RadJoy Bird for it. I was doing a live Global Earth Exchange ceremony as part of UNITY EARTH’s World Unity Week. As I was looking around for sticks and leaves with which to make the bird, I came upon a piece of the tree’s roots that were an incredible bird-shape, with two outspread wings, a tail, and an open, singing beak. You have to look pretty hard to see the bird-shaped root here, but it’s the whole foundation of this bird. The wings are embellished with myrtle that’s growing around the stump, and the tail has some yellow wildflowers around it. In a few days, I’m going to retrieve the root and hang it from my window to remind me of this year’s Global Earth Exchange.