I was out working in the yard today and looked at the massive maple tree that sits in my front yard that must be 100 years old. The poor fella..it’s rotting and falling apart. And since the Main Street in front of me is a state highway, I’m at the mercy of waiting for the State of CT to come cut it down. Later in the day, a massive branch fell and nearly hit someone walking. I sent my swat team of boys out to clean up the mess.
But that damn tree…I wasn’t supposed to see it die and rot. I was supposed to be out here in Connecticut 3 years and then back to Detroit. That was the plan. That was 2007. As we all know life often throws curve balls at us. Fast and furious sometimes. On June 29, 2009 I had a huge curveball thrown at me – my divorce. I can’t believe 4 years have gone by and one of my twins now stares at me like a giant maple in the eye. Yesterday (June 29) was one of those days, we just exist. We wake up…do what we need and stare off into space without looking backwards or thinking forwards.
As Cooper cut the lawn today, I was staring at that f*cking tree. I was supposed to be remarried in April. Again, I thought I had dodged the bullet of watching that tree come down. Curveball yet again – fast and furious thrown at me.
So to have some peace with 06/29/09, 4 years later and what was supposed to be 04/16/13 – I made a truce with that old rotting tree. I’ll stay and watch you come down. Your absence will make a marked difference on how my house looks from the tree. I’ll miss your shade. I’ll miss your color in the fall. But it’s your time to move on. Curve balls even hit the poor tree.
We can learn a lot from the old tree – it’s survived so many storms, winters, bugs, and so much more. It’s lived a great life. So even though it’s rooted in one spot as I am for at least another 6 years until Mallory graduates, it can be a great spot. Truce. I get it. Uncle. It’s time for me to move forward too. June 29th will always come and go. I’ll just have a beer and toast my 100 year old buddy.
