On my everyday walk, I sometimes see a woman who speaks to one particular tree. Or she appears to be speaking. She is old, frail, and I am sure she does not seem to wear in ear bluetooth phones. She does not.
Instead, she seems to stare at the tree and speak intently. I have two plausible theories. Either she adores the tree and talks to them. I don't do it yet, but I too know each tree in my garden intimately.
My other guess is probably more apt. She is speaking to someone she has lost via the tree. Like a daughter or a husband or a sister. She believes that the tree is helping her connect back to that person. Make the tree into the version of someone we have lost is an age old grief technique.
I want to walk up to her, and tell her she can talk to me, but I don't know if I can ever fill the gap her loved one left her with. The tree, though, comfortably can fill that vacuum. That's what they have done for millions of years.
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