About A Tree

I see it every day.

There’s still time to sign up for my May 9 workshop on WHY WE WRITE. You can register for it here. This workshop will be excellent prep for 1000 Words of Summer, which starts May 30 and runs through June 12. More about that here.

I’m doing four in-person events this spring on behalf of 1000 WORDS: in Atlanta, Asheville, NC, and Spartanburg.

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Hi friends.

When I moved into this house a year or so ago I studied the olive tree in the backyard for a while and thought maybe I didn’t like where it was. But I decided I would just sit with it for a few months at least before I made any decisions.

Then I threw a couple of readings in my yard these past six months and noticed very clearly how it bisected the space. If I didn’t have that tree, I thought, I could fit more people in my yard. If I didn’t have that tree, I could fit two hundred people.

Now, I did like how the tree curved up on one side so two people could stand snugly underneath it during the readings. That felt sort of romantic. And maybe I would have been more careful in my thinking if I had known anything about the tree’s history.

But I was just sort of feeling selfish about the arts. I had planted trees before. I loved trees. I just didn’t want the tree there exactly.

The thing was, I wasn’t thinking about the tree’s feelings, at all.

Anyway, I started talking to a friend about removing the tree and putting it in his yard. He did some research. He would have to dig a few feet around and deep to get it out. He was interested. He was daydreaming about it a bit. He liked the idea of it as a project. I was daydreaming about it, too.

And then a new Italian friend came to town and when I showed her the backyard she admired the tree, and then I told her I was thinking of getting rid of it. She was appalled. She said in Italy olive trees are so treasured it would be considered a crime to cut one down. She said look at that beautiful tree, are you crazy? Maybe I was.

Then the other day I was trimming some of the lower branches on the tree, getting to know it a little bit better, and I looked up and there was a bird’s nest.

OK, OK, I said.

Then I did something I hadn’t done before: I dragged a chair over to the tree and sat in its shade while reading my book. I said maybe I don’t need any more people in this yard. I said how come I never sat in your shade before. I said you look tall and beautiful, tree.

So the tree stays.

Love,
Jami

You are reading Craft Talk, the home of #1000wordsofsummer and also a weekly newsletter about writing from Jami Attenberg. I’m also on bluesky and instagram.