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on the day that ella graduated college, the last old maple tree fell. ella returned home from college, to see the tree fall. the tree had stood and lived long before ella\u2019s people even inhabited the land, yet there was no respect given to it. the sacrilegious sounds of a chainsaw filled the air as workers cleared away the felled bones of the maple. ella thought that tree must\u2019ve felt the same way she did, witnessing the senseless destruction that was happening all around it. the tree must\u2019ve wanted to scream to the world to stop, but none would listen. ella thought of her grandmother then, how she had once listened to the whispers of the wind in the maples. she wondered what the whispers would tell her now. ella closed her eyes then, to shut out the sight of the tree, as tears slid down her face.<\/p>\n
ella knew where she needed to go, and she ran. ella ran through her backyard, and across the pristine streets of the housing development. she continued running through other people\u2019s yards and across sidewalks until she reached the other side, the edge of the development. she climbed over the chain link fence, and nearly stumbled down the sheer hillside to the creek, which the developers decided would not be profitable to remove.<\/p>\n
across the creek was the last acre or two of maples left in the town. this bit of forest was all that was left of the vast wood that had once existed. it was here, in her dwindling sanctuary that ella finally stopped running. she climbed into a tree, and she cried. she told the maples what was happening, and she told them how futile it all seemed to try to change the world. everything she loved, all that was good and magic in the world was being stamped out, and ella felt there was nothing she could do to stop it. then ella paused, and she listened. she listened for the whispers of the wind in the maples, but all she heard was the light sounds of traffic and the distant drone of a saw.<\/p>\n
that was it, that was all ella could take. she screamed then, yelled to the whole world. she couldn\u2019t be silent one moment longer. her home, her life, her future, and her world were being destroyed by ignorance and disrespect. she had to change this, she had to. there was no way she could live if she did not. she returned to her house, and she wrote. she poured her knowledge, her will, and her soul into letters and articles, all with the purpose of teaching and pleading with people to understand. she would tell her story, and the stories of her ancestors, to convince people to cease their destruction. she wrote to any and all who would listen. she needed the world to see, to understand all that was being lost. she would not, could not, be silent again. never again would she allow nature to stand alone. ella was going to stand with nature from now until forever. even if nobody else stands with her, because ella knows that the magic is worth protecting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
faced with the destruction and loss of nature, ella finds her voice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11754,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5034],"tags":[144,622,5153,5080],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-27089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-storyfest-2023","tag-climate-change","tag-deforestation","tag-fiction","tag-loss-of-nature"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n