Ryan's Thought for the Week 2.10.25

When my parents moved to Raleigh in the early 1980s, the intersection of Strickland Road and Six Forks Road was controlled by 4 stop signs. As a kid, I remember stop lights and trees on each corner without much around. I mainly remember sneezing every time we pulled into the left turn lane from Six Forks to Strickland. The sun would hit me and trigger a sneeze or two. I’ve passed this delightful quirk to my youngest daughter and she sneezes in the exact same spot if the sun is just right.

When I was in elementary school, I remember my dad coming home from work, crying as he came into the kitchen. As he drove home, he saw that a huge old tree had been cut down to make way for a bank or a car wash. I remember thinking “You can be sad about a tree?” Turns out you absolutely can (and maybe should) be sad about trees.

Last week I passed through the same intersection on the way home from picking up the girls from school. As I came through the intersection my heart sank as I looked to the right and saw the last untouched corner churned into mud with logs, branches and stumps in separate piles. What was a green field with old oaks scattered across it was now prepared for “progress,” whatever that might mean.

I knew the day was coming and yet it didn’t prepare me to see it all torn apart. I’m sure they will plant new trees and in 10 years or so they will look like they’ve always been there. And I’m sure that whatever they build will become familiar soon enough after the buildings are up, and the asphalt’s been laid. I’m also quite certain that I’ll remember how it used to look and I’ll feel a pang of loss at the memory.

And I’m sure that’s how some folks will feel when they arrive at Kanata in the coming months. They will see the new rooflines in the cabin area and they will mourn what’s been lost. They will regret the trees that had to come down and scoff at the newly planted ones. We will make space for that while we celebrate the larger space and the bathrooms in the new cabins. We will listen to the laments as well as the congratulations. We can hold them both with respect and care.