The Tree Outside My Window

From the beginning of the Covid quarantine the tree outside my window on St. Marks Place became my companion. A tree that had been in my periphery for 40 years was now my connection to the outside world. As time slowed down, and the silence of a world without planes above and traffic below made way for the language of the natural world, I began to see my tree differently. The tree had its own unfolding story to tell, its own rhythm. Nature in full force would decide its fate. Some of its branches died and will not bloom again. The East Village, which surrounds it, has changed forever, but what remains is a magnificent story of the cycle of my tree’s life. If I can listen with my deepest self, perhaps I will hear its voice tell the story of what it has seen since its birth.