When KK announced that he was cutting down the skew tree in the garden, I was heartbroken. The tree stands in the corner of the garden, next to the garden light and water feature. It is also home to my bird feeder which has brought me hours of joy as I’ve watched the birds from my kitchen window.

When we planted the tree about 5 years ago, it was a little skew. We didn’t think anything of it at the time, but over the years, it has unfortunately grown so skew, that it had now begun to fall over.

In my view, it gave the garden some character and life. But to KK, an engineer, it wasn’t right. Things in life needed to be perfect, straight, in line (yes, even in nature).

As the tree began to fall over, its huge branches started to suffocate the other plants around it. The garden bed became very dark and the branches blocked the lamp. We eventually had to turn the water feature off because the leaves kept dipping into the water, splashing it over the edge, requiring the fountain to be filled daily – a chore KK was not keen on.

We were unable to plant any flowers under the tree because it was too shady and lately, a disease was eating at its leaves and even though we sprayed with insecticide, it didn’t help much.

The tree was rotten. It was not healthy. It was growing skew and could not be helped. I kept making excuses to keep it “alive” but I could not carry on making excuses anymore.

Armed with a wood saw, axe and pruning shears, it took KK a mere 2 hours to cut the tree out. Even most of the roots pulled out easily, proving that they had started to rot.

As we removed all the cut branches and cleaned up the leaves, I stood back to assess. I was most surprised to find that the gap where the tree had been all of a sudden looked clean, fresh, sunny. By removing the tree, so much light and sun was able to shine down on that area. (I’m thinking seedlings might grow here now!).

I know it’s my imagination, but the other plants looked like they were “free” and could stretch out, breathe and be seen.

The rotten tree reminded me of all those rotten people in my life: the negative people who feel like they are strangling me with their narrow-minded views and opinions. The people who claim to be my friends, yet emotionally abuse me and who hurt me. The people who do not care about anyone else but themselves and bring nothing positive to my life.

I make excuses for them, keep them in my life, accepting who they are, and yet I know that they do more harm to me than good.

Sometimes, I need to realise that some relationships are not worth saving and only by removing them can I make way for new ones.

KK said next week we’ll go look for a new tree to replace the rotten one. In the meantime, I need to look for a new place to hang my bird feeder…