The Brutal Murder of an American Redbud

Trees are people, too!

A little over five years ago I moved into the upstairs apartment in which I am currently living. One of the features I loved about this apartment is that it has two large south-facing windows; one in the living room and one in the office. While I call it an office, it is also my bedroom. I am pretty sure that I spend more time at my desk writing than I do in my small bed sleeping so I refer to the room as my office.

And my desk is situated directly in front of that aforementioned south-facing window. I simply cannot write without a window to look out of. My fantasy is to someday live in an all-glass house.

Near the street curb directly outside my office window was a large American Redbud tree. When I say ‘large’ it must be understood that American Redbuds are not large trees. They are forest-dwelling understory trees in their natural habitat. They are very slow growing and even after reaching 100 years of age they rarely get much taller than 30 feet.

But this particular American Redbud was right around 30 feet in height allowing me to look directly into it from my second story office window. I learned that the tree had been planted the first year the building was occupied over 90 years ago. It was the biggest and tallest American Redbud I had ever seen and I’ve…