I had to close the challenge just a wee bit early as I've got a lot on this week, but boy there were a lot of fabulous treemails! I enjoyed each one of them, so thanks for participating - your beautiful posts really made for some great reading on HIVE this week, making the platform truly what it is!

@carolkean in this post transplanted a honey locust tree, which survived a storm in 2020 only to be eaten by a deer. Watered and nurtured, it succumbed to an animal, although @carolkean did console herself by wondering if it was a black locust over a honey locust. Regardless, a learning experience, as tree nurturing can be!

@soyunasantacruz's story of her life is framed against a beautiful mamon tree under which her family took shade. She remembers being a child and never having the strength to climb it. Years later, she reflects on how the tree has aged too. Whilst she tends it lovingly, she also gets mad at it for it's leaf drop and the shells and seeds of the fruit. Never mind, she reflects - it's worth it for the beautiful fruit it offers and the shade it provides.

@derzweile wrote about a mandarin and a mango tree - two trees which provide her with abundant fruit. She recalled climbing them as children and the branches breaking, but as an adult, she feels grateful for their shade and the mandarins and mangoes that it provides.

@sunnyag wrote an environmental plea for people to care more for trees, lest they become only memories. They wrote a lovely poem which sounds like a prayer:

O Dear Tree,
You are great,
you are the pride of earth.
you are the protector,
of the environment,
you help reduce pollution.
You are our life,
you are the life,
of the living world.
You remove our ignorance,
you give us wisdom,
O tree, you are great.
We shouldn’t use an ax on the trees,
we shouldn't grow,
jungles of concrete,
we must prevent erosion,
so you give us clean air.
You are the gift of life
O my dear tree,
you are great,
we need your blessings,
we are happy with you.
you are the shelter of the birds,
you help everyone
get rid of pain and sorrow.
O you kind tree,
you bring greenery to the earth,
enhance the beauty of nature
you are our life
O dear tree, you are our life.
You help bring the monsoons,
you help clouds rain.
O tree, you take away the pain
of the passers-by.
O, tree,
you bring life & luck
to the forests
you bring prosperity
you help remove poverty,
O, tree,
you are so kind
and full of mercy.
O dear tree, you're great.

@joseph23 also wrote a 'letter to a bleeding tree', taking an environmental perspective as well. Thankyou for your care of the environment, Joseph!

In this post @jimmyadames wrote about a Hong Kong orchard tree, in Sarasota, where he'd like to move. As I miss the trees in England, where I long to travel again one day, I really related to this imagining - thinking about at tree in a place I'd like to go to.

In @goldenoakfarm's post, it's the Christmases of years gone by she thinks of as she writes about the pine trees they strung with Christmas lights. It was planted in 1982. I know how much this girl adores her Christmases, so this tree was pretty special! It lived for 40 years but with the expansion of the new house and the onset of bugs and disease, they had to come down. How we can miss trees when they are no longer around!

@katleaya wrote about a mango tree in this post and growing up with it. They remember even using its leaves in a tea to cure a throat problem. They are still very much in love with this mango tree and looking forward to going to visit it, because the memories of that tree are so important to their lives. So many of these treemails were love letters to trees and it strikes me how we can love an apparently inanimate thing which isn't inanimate at all - they are almost family, because they've provided food, shelter and comfort in times of need.

@owasco wrote a lovely entry too - hers is also about homecoming, as she is moving to quite close to where this tree will again provide her shade and comfort. In this post she recalls an earlier description of climbing the tree as a child:

The child gripped the tree’s fattest branch, heaved one leg over, and scrambled up.
She climbed until she had to listen carefully for cracking sounds from the thinner branches, and to press her body to the tree’s trunk.
The treetop bowed with every breeze or shift of her weight.
Safe.

A poem about an orange tree from @grissshm also spoke of memories:

Dear Orange Tree 🍊
Last winter took away your leaves, oh tree
last summer it was the birds
that filled your trunk with holes
and in family nested your branches.

Last winter also took my grandfather,
with his strong hands
and his laughter even louder,
As strong as the wind.

Remains in your shade, dear orange tree
the caresses of his hands that gracefully pruned your crown,
and you, with your shade
you were grateful for the fertilizer, the water, and the love.

It was a cycle that never ended.

Until last year.

Your oranges, sweet, fell to the ground full of holes.
your trunk became diseased and lost that dark color that covered it
we could not enjoy your fruits and your shadow was taken by the sun.
Dear orange tree, you accompanied us in mourning.

Now, when the clouds have brought a new blue sky
you have filled yourself with green leaves that kiss the wind
you are loaded with huge oranges
and you have brought me memories
that my grandfather created in your shade.

I'm struck so much by these treemails, thinking about how are human lives are very much bound up with tree lives. As children we climb in them, take solace and shelter amongst the limbs, gorge ourself on fruit and wonder about the world. As adults we want to protect them the way they did us, because we see their value as providers - not just fruit, but memories. We realise how important they are.

But then, there are other kinds of trees too, like money trees - check out this post by @brandt who reprimands a money tree who, in failing to provide, renders him without the fine food and beverage to which he has grown accustomed:

Finally, for lack of the cash your branches have failed to provide for nearly a week now, I will soon find myself cut off from my customary banquet of fine meats and cheeses, and exotic fruits and breads, and deluxe chocolates and truffles and sweets, which are essential for keeping my prodigious mind and unparalleled genius healthy and well-nourished, just in case I ever get a job and need to start using them again someday. I trust this email will be a sufficient reminder of your due responsibility to enable my lazy, irresponsible lifestyle.

Then there was the lynching tree, which fairly broke my heart:

Keep telling your story of the journey to freedom, my friend. We need it more than ever. You in very slow motion remind me of the rejoicing of my grandparents when they remembered how far God had brought them from – keep on dancing and praising God from joy. Keep praising, and hosting the symphony of song of birds, free in the air and free to rest on limbs not scarred with hemp, not stained with blood, not darkened by the smoke of burnings, only bearing the fruit God meant for you to bear.

Thankyou @deeanndmathews for this stunning reflection on history, with it's hope for the future. I hope the fruit on your trees is not haunted by memory, but alive and glistening with promise.

@raj808 made an extraordinary video for his response, a poem set to music and strange deep dream animations of the tree which brought his magic tree to life.

I feel so, so touched reading these treemails. @carolkean shared a Hopi prophecy and a quote in one her comments to me, and it feels right to share it here also, thinking about these common destinies so many of us have with the trees we right about.

The tree breathes what we exhale.

We breathe what the tree exhales. We have a common destiny with the tree.

--Floyd 'Red Crow' Westerman

It's so, so impossible to decide on a winner for these posts, and it almost breaks my heart to do so! I'm awarding @grissshm for her lovely poem about the orange tree and her grandfather. On one side of the world, here I am making marmalade from oranges, and on the other, @grissshm is remembering her grandfather as the oranges ripen. It was a beautifully constructed and poignant poem in it's simplicity and lovely imagery. 15 HIVE also goes to @deeanndmathews for her reflection on 'strange fruit' and historical travesties, and hope. 5 HIVE goes to @brandt, for making me laugh with his money tree.

Thankyou for all who entered and please thank @trucklifefamily for the bonus 15 HIVE that went towards the winners. We loved all your posts and wish we had a money tree to award you all! Thanks so much for entering!

With Love,

Are you on HIVE yet? Earn for writing! Referral link for FREE account here