Old Trees

There’s a street near my house that used to have large, majestic trees hanging over the road that provided cool shade even on the hottest summer day. For one block it felt like I was driving through what I imagine Sherwood Forest would look like.

Now half the trees are gone, trimmed back or cut down because they were old, and dead limbs were breaking off in storms. The street has a different feel to it, and it’s become every other streamlined road that takes me from here to there. I used to take a deep breath on that road to center me to something solid, real, and a little magical as I drove off to start my day.

The land we live on influences how we relate to others and deal with the day’s challenges.

Thankfully there are other places in town that still take my breath away. When I stand on the bluffs of Grandview Drive, I’m always inspired by the view over the Illinois River way below and miles of land that used to be old prairie.

When I sit by the river and watch it flow by, I feel the power of its endlessly surging water flowing on to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico a thousand miles away.

I hike through the quiet of the Forest Preserve and think that I’ve stepped three hundred years into the past when much of Illinois looked like this.

And when I drive through the countryside, I see the gentle roll of the land and I’m moved by its symbiotic relationship with the sky. This month I begin to see the green shoots of crops rising from fields that have been bare and brown for months.

As much as we make changes to the land, so the land also changes us.

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Earth Day is this Wednesday. Do something nice for nature.