Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I had a long phone conversation with a Buddhist friend last evening, and we mainly discussed trees we could see from our windows, though both of us do take walks in our neighborhoods.  She lives in a senior housing complex, and she described how it felt to see a photo put up of someone who has passed away.  I joked that out here in the "real" world people are also leaving this earth at an alarming frequency, and I figured it was our age.  We are of the age for losses, sometimes piled upon each other.  Soon it will be us, because well, we are of that age.  But these Covid 19 deaths are startling, terrifying and mounting up beyond our comprehension.  All we can do is admire the trees, who, by the way, outlive our human lives in lots of cases.  Here, we have many redwoods, so we know they've seen and experienced much history, and watched the struggles and joys of our shorter lived species.  My friend and I find comfort in them:  what they stand for, their resilience, their beauty, the way the clean the air we breathe.  Trees.  Ahhhhh.