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LIFE LESSONS
Can You Hear Their Whispers?
Nature’s quiet tells us many stories.
Soles digging into her earth, dampness quenching decades of thirst.
A place always beloved, albeit from afar. She has returned me home.
Her whispers crossed oceans. This soil was always home.
~ Whatever Lola Writes
Trees speak to us — in so many ways.
The summer before I left North Carolina, I spent as much time as possible outdoors. One of my favorite places was less than three miles from my apartment.
Eastway Middle School’s track area is surrounded by trees, birds, squirrels, and sometimes even bees. On weekends, I used to take a few leisurely laps as a way to quiet my mind.
I remember one afternoon, as I took my first less-than-brisk walk around the track, I noticed a man with a chainsaw standing by a fenced section towards the far right.
My heart refused to accept what as happening.
Approaching him, we greeted each other cordially. Then I asked him:
Why is the tree being removed, is it decaying or otherwise causing harm?
Shaking his head, he told me that the tree was being cut because they were going to replace the old fencing and needed to make room for same. I felt a pain in…