Before a quick and delightful story about a tree and generosity, I hope you watch this little 2-minute film that features a narrative straight out of my book. I am awkward and uncomfortable with self-promotion, but if I want people to buy my book, then I have to let them know that it’s out there and what’s in it. So I’ve decided to start making mini-films to accompany the essays, and this is my first. This piece comes from a larger essay called Cinematic Intimacy, which you can find in I Won’t Keep You: Short Essays & Little Fictions. It’s available directly through me, as well as through major online retailers like Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. You can find purchasing options here on my website!
For years, our neighbors to the west of us lit up their large evergreen every holiday season. Until they didn’t. By the time they no longer lit it up, we had become friends. While I’ve lived just east across the street from them for over 2 decades, it wasn’t until 7 years ago when Jim moved in, and his 1969 Beetle came with him, that my neighbor Randy walked over. (They now work on his 1976 Volkswagon van together) A few years later, and a few days after we gave them a plate of Christmas cookies, Randy found out I was a writer. His wife is a writer too, and when she found out I love to write, she sent Randy over with a handmade journal for me. Our friendship struck up over hand-delivered poems back and forth across this small street. Her name is Carla, and at the time our friendship formed, she wasn’t feeling herself due to an undiagnosed condition, so while she wouldn’t let me visit, she’d send Randy over to me with poems and baked goods, and I would return the gesture. Leaving envelopes and scones on the porch as the puppies barked at me from Carla’s second-story writing room.
So by the time they stopped decorating the tree, we were finally friends, and we found out it was too expensive. I wanted to let them know how much we enjoyed the the evergreen, even sending her photos of their tree over the years. As a visual thank you for keeping up the tradition for so long. A couple Christmases came and went, and the tree stayed large and dark. Then, this holiday season came. From the living room, I heard Jim shout, “Come look outside and see what’s happening,” just at the moment that I received a text from Randy saying, “Look outside. Merry Christmas!” A little crane and a few men were stringing the tree with the white lights we’d come to love and miss.
The owner of the company, knowing Carla’s health issues, offered to decorate the tree this year as a gift to Carla. Apparently, they’d been customers of his since he first began, and he felt an affinity and gratitude for them. Randy told me one of the reasons they accepted the gift was because they knew how much Jim and I love the tree as well. As the guys were wrapping up, Jim ran out and tipped them the last cash he had in his wallet - $60. Randy also tipped them, with cash and baked goods.
That tree and the owner of the landscaping company’s gesture have delighted me since. Honestly, we have a better view of the tree than Randy and Carla! It stands in reflective guard of our own tree, and it extends its brilliance toward me in the center of night when I wake to pee or because of a quick blip of anxiety. I’m not one to think of gowns, but this tree truly seems dressed up for the ball, but not a disco. It brings life to our intersection and warmth to our living room. The best holiday gesture yet.
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