The Eagle Tree

by Ned Hayes

And then it occurred to me that it would be interesting to freeze everyone around me and look at them closely, to examine them like I examine tree bark when I climb. And they’d be just as still as a tree, and then I could understand them better.

What is it about this hilltop that grows out-of-region trees?

I guess some people would say that I should not care about it, because this is a dead tree, not a living one. But everything in the forest contributes to the whole. The dead trees are just as much a part of the ecosystem as the living ones; they contribute nutrients and seedbeds for the next generation of life. The whole system is part of one whole.

nature does not acknowledge human lines or meanings.

Every year, on the Saturday closest to Earth Day in April, there is a parade in Olympia called the Procession of the Species. People dress up as animals and plants and pretend to be other parts of the ecosystem. For example, there is an ocean part of the parade, and everyone in that part is dressed as a fish or an ocean mammal. People pretending to be jellyfish hold big decorated umbrellas with brightly colored streamers all around them, like jellyfish tentacles. One year, someone made a whale that was of accurate dimensions—the whale filled up the whole street. This parade is distinct from other parades. There are no signs and no writing and no cars and no floats, nothing that represents human civilizations or culture. It is a parade of only handmade costumes and handmade rolling things, and everything in the parade is dressed up like an animal or a plant. The whole idea started in Olympia, for Earth Day, and now there are parades like this, for all the species, in many cities all around the world. But it began in Olympia.

Essentially, trees are made of air and sunshine.

I looked at Ilsa’s face, and in that moment, I could understand why some people like to look at each other’s faces. There is something in a person’s eyes that you cannot see anywhere else in the world. Something haunting and unsettling.

An impossible castle made from air and sunlight, fixed in place by the power of photosynthesis and chlorophyll. Magic. With lights.