In late August, I noticed something happening in our neighborhood: the trees were being trimmed. Seriously trimmed. All the lower branches were being removed and the trees ended up looking like toothpicks.
It’s how they roll in South Florida to get the oak trees ready for hurricanes. It’s also a bad time of year to do it as the trees are dropping their acorns for the wildlife.
Because I absolutely hate the way it looks, I decided to go to our front office (gated community) to tell them to Leave. My. Tree. Alone!
After Hurricane Irma came through in early September, there were lots of trees that went down that had been “hurricane prepped” and others (like mine, i.e., not prepped) that stood strong. In my mind, this negates the argument that they “need” to be trimmed for hurricanes.
And since there was tons of other damage to clean up from Irma, it was months before the tree trimming guys were back in our neighborhood.
Until this week. They came back to finish the job.
Thank goodness I work from home because I seriously doubt whether my tree would have survived had I been gone. And had I come home and it was looking like a toothpick, I’d have been incredibly upset. (As it was, I had to tell them three times to leave my tree alone! wtf?)
To give you an idea of what it looks like afterward, here’s my neighbor’s tree:
And here’s my beautiful tree (protected by me) – untouched by their saws:
Aside from taking food and protection away from the birds and squirrels, doing this much trimming harms the trees. They have to recover (which they will), but they will have a lot to heal.Today, I went out to tell the men to please be aware of the wildlife as they trim the trees. (They really don’t need to do SO much trimming.) Did it help? I hope so. I wonder if anyone ever even asked them before.
Being an intuitive, I can feel the trees’ pain. I can hear their cries as the saws cut off their limbs. Since the guys have been doing this work, I’ve been talking to the trees, asking for forgiveness, and telling them that they will heal from this. They can allow it make them stronger, grow taller and more full as they reach to the sun. After they heal. They understand.
My point with all of this is this: since starting my business years ago, I’ve noticed that I’ve changed. I’m less willing to just stay silent, less willing to not rock the boat. I think that part of growing a coaching business requires that you speak up, to be visible, to take a stand, to help others who cannot speak for themselves. It requires that you be that voice and that protector.
Even for trees.
