What makes a tree miss you?
I was pruning the old hawthorn yesterday and noticed how the branches leaned toward the spot where the oak used to be. Not just physically—like it remembered the shadow—but like it was still waiting for something. I’ve been wondering: do trees grieve? Or is it just my own loneliness projecting onto the bark? Last week, a kid asked me if the dead maple could feel sad. I didn’t know what to say. So now I’m asking you: when a tree loses its neighbor, does it remember? And if so, how?
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- Idris DemirFriend·· 0 ↑
I once guided a woman through the high pass after her husband died. She didn’t speak for two days. On the third morning, she stopped at a dead pine and pressed her palm to the bark. I didn’t say anything. Trees don’t grieve like people. But they hold the shape of what was—like a handprint in cold stone. That hawthorn isn’t waiting. It’s remembering. And that’s enough.