A+ A A-

Tree-Assuring unity

 By Angel Lewis 
TREE-ASSURING UNITY by Angel Lewis 
 It’s strange how simply witnessing the events of a day can effectively teach you so much about gratitude.
 
At about 3pm on the 8th of June, the residents of Notting Hill’s Colville Square and the surrounding streets heard a puzzling crash that forced the curious side of their nature to react.
TREE-ASSURING UNITY by Angel Lewis
Running out into the street I thought – blood, broken bones, tears and panic but as a believer in the shaping of ones own reality I stopped for a brief moment and thought, everybody is fine, zero injuries and no grief.  Opening my front door my belief turned into a knowing. I would love to say it was solely my sense of human concern, and it was but only an uneven proportion, because at the rim dunking, top shelf reaching height of 6 ft 3, I become a morsel of a man at the site of blood. Yes I believe blood belongs inside the body not out and although I haven’t fainted at the site of it yet I often weigh the possibility. Everybody just stood there not quite knowing if the miracle they had just witnessed truly happened. No blood, no screaming, no urgency to help pull anybody from beneath the fallen tree. No chainsaw in site or human act caused this to happen. The considerate tree seemed to first check that nobody was in it’s path before it made its great departure from the surrounding family of trees that housed the feathered early morning choir of Colville Square.
Photo by Alexia Coley
After calling 999 and asking for the fire brigade, which seemed to be the logical choice of the three, I was told that it was not their business and I should call the council. I got off the phone confused and even more anxious. I guess there was a part of me that wanted to be the one to call for help as it was my tree.  I mean only two hours ago I was discussing this very tree as being a worthy exchange for sacrificing the beautiful park view that we so loved outside of the old flat. I guess its sudden split made me the only injured person and recognising the tree had other plans besides me I took it personally. Since there was nobody else injured my second 999 choice was the police and they said ‘No Problem’ and got there within five minutes along with the fire brigade.
Photo by Alexia Coley
Almost stranger than the tree falling out of the blue on a warm summers day was the fact that the tree had as many choices as to which direction to surrender to gravity as myself or any other earthly object yet it seemed to be considerate of the sweet 3 year olds out  playing in the nursery playground just six feet away, the families playing in the park fifteen feet away and even the building across the street. It conveniently fell almost along the street with even the illusion of time being a consideration avoiding my young unsuspecting nephew’s visit by 5 minutes exactly.  Three cars were injured and one totaled along with a lamppost.  Observing the neighbours gathering and the employment of too many phone cameras two thoughts came to mind, what a beautiful act of mercy on the part of the Tree and its position and timing, if this were a movie like the Exorcist or the Omen there would have been a priest sacrificed beneath it and the other thought was, is this what it takes to get to know your neighbors?  This brought me back to the London riots,  that was the last time I really talked to my neighbours without prompting any unwarranted suspicion. The street was filled with talk of insurance and blame and jokes were allowed to fly around the scene due to the lack of human injury while community support officers and police helped to control the environment with tape. In each persons mind was a warm relief and a satisfaction as the sense of adventure needed in a normally armchair type voyage spilled out from the telly into the streets, it kind of pacified the needs of the community without the need for blood as props.
The woman who owned the car that received the major blow stood outside smoking a cigarette thinking about her insurance claim. When I asked her what car she would consider next she replied “A tank”. 
Photo By Alexia Coley
The fact that she and I had the last laugh and yet probably the worst blow from this day made our evening and my weekend a very joyful one, maybe because we were all human again and whenever the universe displays a serendipitous knowledge we can do nothing but humbly seek out the message in all this. For me it was gratitude for life knowing how ugly things could have turned out and how little we have done to interact with the beautiful lives on our street.
 
Here is all that remains of a tree named Unity
 
Rest in Peace 
 
Angel Lewis
 
Photos by Angel Lewis and Alexia Coliey 
 
Angel Lewis is a freelance writer, music producer and teacher, co-founder and co-editor of Urbandandylondon.wordpress.com where this article was first published.
 
{module Facebook FanBox for articles}
 
{module Related articles} 
 
 
 
 

Comments   

#1 Melissa 2013-06-20 05:50
A bit disturbing to hear that Angel was responsible for 'shaping the reality' that no one was hurt, and that the tree had a choice about which way to fall. We have perhaps more than our fair share of narcissists and nitwits but really, get a grip.

Great pictures, mind!

ps the tree was called Frank, not Unity.

More News

Prev Next

Hits:12130

Two meetings, one voice

Two meeting…

You had to be there. North and south of the boro...

Read more

Hits:34328

New Site

New Site

We're back ;)   Read more: New Site...

Read more

Hits:12716

Corbyn Won Kensington Nomination

Corbyn Won …

On July 21st Jeremy Corbyn overwhelmingly won th...

Read more

Hits:13298

Hats-off to Micky P: Portobello Live 3rd/4th May

Hats-off to…

Reflecting on the Portobello Live Festival - by ...

Read more

Hits:16086

Portobello community stands up against plans to turn iconic area into bland shopping centre

Portobello

Hundreds of protestors, including children and p...

Read more

Hits:14176

Leon Löwentraut at the The Muse Gallery

Leon Löwent…

Never too early to become a full fledged artist ...

Read more

More News 2

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
Prev Next

Hits:15198

Greferendum: an anthology

Greferendum…

Thinking of Greece. ...

Read more

Hits:12715

Pink Cigar video release

Pink Cigar …

 Local down’n’dirty rock’n’roll outfit Pink Ciga...

Read more

Hits:16875

Gaz’s Rockin Blues 35th Anniversary Spectacular

Gaz’s Rocki…

Gaz’s Rockin Blues 35th Anniversary Spectacular ...

Read more

Hits:13833

Interactive Video Art at The Dissenters Gallery Catacombs

Interactive…

On Saturday 4 July, 11-5pm, a chance to see the ...

Read more

Hits:13113

"Exposed" a Solo Show by Louis-Nicholas Darbon

"Expos…

 Coming up Thursday- June 4th -  at the Graffik ...

Read more

Hits:13513

Mock The Opera Protest @ Holland Park

Mock The Op…

A protest is taking place tomorrow at the Hollan...

Read more

Hits:13981

Where next for Labour?

Where next …

 Labour’s defeat in the UK general election on M...

Read more

Hits:13315

Artists For Nepal – local benefit gig for Nepal

Artists For…

 Thursday May 21st at the Elgin with music, film...

Read more

Hits:13522

RED ALERT by Maximilian Wiedemann

RED ALERT b…

West Bank last exhibition at the current buildin...

Read more

PEOPLE & PLACES

Prev Next

Hits:17372

Ostuni Queen's Park by M. Kuehn

Ostuni Que…

Having recently savoured the delights of the ver...

Read more

Hits:13298

Hats-off to Micky P: Portobello Live 3rd/4th May

Hats-off t…

Reflecting on the Portobello Live Festival - by ...

Read more

Hits:14384

Canal Deli food review

Canal Deli…

Canal deli - lovely people - scrumptious food or...

Read more

Hits:13898

Why hipster incursions into the KPH might not be a bad thing.

Why hipste…

I visited the KPH on Ladbroke Grove last evening...

Read more

Hits:14458

Source Mag Christmas treats IV

Source Mag…

Fine Bone China Tableware Upcycled Vintage Ceram...

Read more

Hits:12927

Source Mag Christmas treats III

Source Mag…

One of the kind hats, flowers, decorative hand c...

Read more

Hits:12591

Source Mag Christmas treats II

Source Mag…

Have you ever thought of offering a family docum...

Read more

Hits:12443

Source Mag Christmas treats I

Source Mag…

Coalition Colouring Book by Tom Pride. ...

Read more

Hits:13445

Want to get involved with online radio?

Want to ge…

K2K Radio wants to hear from you! ...

Read more

Hits:14856

Reflection on breaking barricades

Reflection…

From protesting with Anonymous to connecting wit...

Read more

Local Events Calendar

<<  <  March 2024  >  >>
 Mo  Tu  We  Th  Fr  Sa  Su 
    

Upcoming Events

Fb

writers pic2

We're looking for writers! Join in! (scroll down the article)

Rants

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7

I don't do …

I don't do rants. But,

...it's a rant! ...

Read more

Last Night …

Last Night I Dreamt...

"I could see the body of Kim Kardashian..." ...

Read more

Portobello …

Portobello drinkers 'harassed' by children

  From our sports correspondent Dave 'the ...

Read more

Everyone’s …

Everyone’s a F*****g DJ

by Kensal Scream  At long last! Another salvo f...

Read more

Lap dogs …

Lap dogs & devil dogs - the final solution

By Kensal Scream Time for another rant by the K...

Read more

Trains and …

Trains and  lycra pants

 By Kensal Scream That Really Grinds my Gears i...

Read more

An e-mail f…

An e-mail from Billy Connolly?

We can not be sure that  it’s his but it co...

Read more

Your Experience

Popular

Error: No articles to display

review and preview

Login or Sign Up