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My eco-anxiety led to a tree-buying spree 🌱

My eco-anxiety led to a tree-buying spree 🌱

Plus, the unexpected gift that saved my tree-planting fail.

Tarryn Giebelmann
October 03, 2024

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“I didn’t plant a tree yesterday.”

“So?” says my husband.

“So. It was World Plant a Tree Day, and I missed it.”

It was 3pm on a Sunday. The shops were open for another two hours. But I was hungover, and two hours is not enough time to make myself resemble a human being and overcome my indecisiveness about which tree to buy.

These are the things I beat myself up about. Not planting a tree on tree planting day. Not choosing the “climate friendly” burger patty on the menu. Stressing about things I coulda, shoulda, woulda done had I not tripped over my eco anxiety.

“So, do it tomorrow and plant two,” he says, like it’s no big deal.

It was a simple yet genius idea. I can overcompensate and make myself feel better! It will be like paying interest to Mother Nature.

But then my brain started doing the math. Tomorrow would be Monday, which means I’m two days late, so I’d need to plant THREE trees.

I stop at the nursery on the way home from work, choke at the price of a small tree, and buy three (two of which are more shrub than tree, because HAVE YOU SEEN THE PRICE OF TREES??).

I only got around to planting them on Tuesday, and if you’re thinking what I’m thinking, I’m now IN DEBT to Mother Nature because I’m three days late and should be planting four trees!

One for you, two for me 🌱

I try not to think about it as I get to planting: one tree in my landlord’s garden, the other two in pots that I plan to replant one day when I’m big and can afford my own house, which might never happen, because HAVE YOU SEEN THE PRICE OF HOUSES?!

One for my landlord…

… two for me.

My husband arrives home a few hours later. He hands me a small Eucalyptus tree in a nursery pot.

“What’s this?”

“You wanted to plant a tree,” he says. Here’s a tree.”

Tree number four 💚

And just like that, everything evens out and everything is well in the world.

— Tarryn ✌️

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