642 - Vol II

"Your favourite tree"

Cutting down trees for development at our cabin at Turtle Lake has always been a sore spot for me. My Mom (and I) can vividly remember a time when my dad fired up his chainsaw to cut down a dead tree & my sister Kendra & I sat crying and pleading for him to stop. It's no surprise that when I was in grade six I wrote a sequel to The Lorax as my year-end project for my Environmental Studies class (which I nailed!).  

Nothing makes me more angry than when I ride my bike past a lot at the lake that someone has stripped. Every last tree is gone so that they can bring in their stupid pre-fab cabin. I want to scream. But I won't  go into that (because that entry would be too long & too intense). What I will say is that one of my favourite trees is the one that my dad built the deck around at the cabin. Every time I see it, it makes me smile. And for my wedding my mom wrapped little twinkle lights around it & some of the other trees at the cabin. I love what that tree represents. It shows the respect that the Hopaluk family feels towards our surroundings. It shows that we value the trees for the life they house, the beauty they possess, the privacy they bring & the clean Turtle Lake air they create. And that we can live & play in harmony with those trees.

And if that didn't make me sound like a Hippie, I don't know what would.