The Maple We're Losing

We lost one of our maple trees.

Not technically yet.

But every arborist who's come to look at it says the same thing: It's dead.

We have five maples in our backyard. Each one shades a different part of the yard. One has a picnic table under it.

On warm days, it turns that part of our backyard into a nice spot to eat lunch.

That's the one we're losing.

When we first moved in, it looked a little sickly. We had someone come check it out, and they said it was fine, so we left it alone.

Then spring came. The leaves on the other four trees filled in, but this one did not.

I called an arborist. He said it was dead and had to come down. So I called another. Then another. I was looking for someone to tell me what I wanted to hear.

No one did.

Maples are supposed to live 60+ years. This one is only about 15, so I keep wondering what we missed.

Maybe nothing could have saved it. But maybe there were things we could have done earlier.

Fixing what you already have feels boring. Until the thing you failed to maintain becomes impossible to replace.

And I can't buy another 15-year-old maple and plant it tomorrow.

It made me think about how we treat the things we already have including our careers.

We spend so much energy wondering if the grass is greener somewhere else. As they say, the grass is greener where you water it.

I know how that sounds coming from someone at a company a lot of people are trying to get into.

And sometimes the grass really is greener somewhere else. Sometimes the tree is dead, and the right move is to plant a new one.

I'm not saying stay no matter what.

I'm saying don't let something you'd want to keep die while you're staring over the fence.

So if you're somewhere that doesn't feel like enough right now, tend to it before you walk away.

Some things take years to grow. And some don't grow back at all.