weeping willow

A year ago last spring I bought a small willow tree and brought it home for my husband to plant in the backyard. We had been surprised to come home one day to see the line of trees along the fence completely removed, stumps and all. Not wanting my sons to come home and see the starkness of the landscape without the willows, I decided to plant some hope. It wasn't really an adequate replacement for what had been there, but it was the best I could do. When the boys came home, they looked at the pathetic thing, and nodded their heads when I said someday it would be big enough to enjoy. I bought a tiny set of brass bells and hung them in the tree.

Last Fall, after the branches were bare, I went out to trim it up so that it would be nice and tall someday. I was saddened to find a huge bug infestation in the upper part of the trunk, and was thinking I'd have to start all over again, planting another and dragging out the process of ever having a satisfying tree to enjoy. I trimmed away as much as I could, but realized the damage had gone to far into the heart of the trunk. I sprayed it and saved a chunk to show a friend that's knowledgeable about such things, and she said it was probably borers, and that I might have to plant a different kind of tree altogether. Shit. I was discouraged, and I did nothing about it.

This spring it branched out and up and my son noticed it in the backyard when he came home. We stood and looked at it through the living room window, and he said it's really getting big. I started explaining about the borers and that the tree needed to be replaced, but I hadn't gotten around to it. He said, so it's damaged, just like us. And I stopped, and looked a the tree with new eyes, at how it was flourishing despite what had happened to it. And right then I decided that's it, the tree stays for now. We need to watch it grow and survive. It may fall down someday, which is okay, since it's planted far enough away from any houses, but for now it's a symbol of going on anyway, with life as it is. The weeping willow is still alive, and so are we.