Our dear trees

"They are cutting down our trees. Decades of life and energy growing… and they cut it down in seconds. It was our backward, but they needed a path. They don't even care of what was there or who lived there, who was depended of those trees. They rape the trunk until it doesn't have any branches anymore.

They've killed the trees. 

They fall in front of my eyes, and my heart cries with them. Each trees is a piece of me that gets teared out. 

All that, for money. All this destruction is aimed to make … money. 

In the brutal noise of metal and machinery, man's greed harvests "its" resources. 

We've all seen it in videos and pictures, even in films. We've all seen the Rain Forest been destroyed… But, when it's so far away, can it really touch you, move you ? Yes, it's sad, it's terrible, but it's also very far away and we have things more important on the menu here. 

It's not quite the same when it suddenly happens in your backyard, in your garden. To see the trees you've gazed upon so many times while sipping your morning coffee on the porch, being taken down… just like that. Effortless and fast. Heart-breaking. 

They're killing our forest. And we have gave them the power to do it…

It feels so impossible to not hate them. To not hate these monkeys who "only do their job", who don't think, who feel so compelled to obey… those blind mind… I want my power back from society ! I don't want to watch them anymore destroy what it so important to me ! I don't want them to own me, my integrity, and my opinion ! Any more, never more ! I can't stand this any longer.

Nature will survive. She has done it so many times. The deer who were coming out of these woods to eat the grass on the meadow have been long gone. We wondered why for about a month and a half… I guess they knew…

In the end, we, humans, are the one who loses the most out of it."

This is what went straight to my head after filming "our" trees being cut down. It was an extremely intense moment and even if the pain is still there in minor proportion, I'm happy it's in the past. Boy, I cried like i never do. I screamed and cried to the point where the whole perron went shaking with me. I was lucky enough to have Morten with me to help going through such a deep and powerful pain. We were both shocked. It took us from the inside and, hours after the scene, tears were still flowing silently out. The heart aches and the mind wondered. "What can we do?" 

A million thoughts ran through. 

Suddenly, I went back to read Henry David Thoreau. After all, he lived in the woods, all alone, in a cabin that he had built himself. It looks almost like the best solution to my sorrow. Until I realized the obvious : this would be a beautiful, fantastic, dreamy and ever close to nature… escape.

Life is here. Life is now. 

I don't deny that we need wood. We live in a house made out of wood. We warm ourselves in the winter with wood stoves. I enjoy a good book and to paint watercolors on paper. 

What I refuse, what hurts the most, what I can't stand is the way we, today, in our so modern society, destroy forests. We lose so much in it. We don't just take trees that are ready to be cut, we harvest them. There is no care around it (or at least, it doesn't look like it). It used to be an craft. It was to be learned, how to recognize which tree is ready to be cut, which one will help the surroundings by being cut and used. We used to actually using the whole tree. Now, it's just the trunk. All the rest is left on site, to rot. It's gonna take years before it's completely broken down and made into soil. 

It looks like a mirror to the situation we have so often lived as kid, when our moms were telling us " eat your vegetable!" 

The reason for this is once more money. "It would cost"… "It's not worth it" … So, we make holes in the woods, on the hills, by the rivers. Just like borders between countries are drawn on the papers, areas are being selected to be harvested. This is what we often see around in Norway. Woodland are considered as an investment. The national statistics still confirmed that less than 1/3 of the annual growing woodland is being cut. 

And you can see the scars for years after. It's every other hill. 

This is the one by our house. When you walk down, you don't even walk on the ground most of the time, but rather half a meter above it. You walk on the pile of branches left there. 

And yet, the most impressive thing happened when I was down there. As I sat and listened, a bird sang nearby and the creek was still running under the ground. I thought it would be dead-silent, and it simply wasn't. 

Life goes on. Life is as mysterious as powerful. No matter what we do, it still pushes to the light. It's we, humans, who have to learn, who lose our connection to nature when we do such things. 

Nature will survive. Will we ?