It had been way too long between tree walks and yet it was these very walks that put me in touch with the trees in the first place. Way back when, it’s got be decades ago, because that’s when the poems and the songs started too, these walks have been a place to talk with the trees. Then came the period of sadness of not being able to do enough, so staying away and swimming instead seemed like a solution.

Being back on the tree track for the first time since the Telstra towers had been upgraded by Optus to 4 and 5G turned out to be another unexpected test and such a wonder full walk as the sun set in the west and the moon rose in the east. The almost everlasting reds beaming out from behind the Watagans whilst the brightest lotus moon, that’s how it looked without wearing spectacles, rose over Green Point. How perfect is this place.  

The sense of awe and gratitude was shared arms uplifted, stretching out in the shapes of the branches as the walking started. Each orientation of the arms a mirror of the trees that were still standing strong before me. Arms move, located tree, felt connected, locate tree, arms move, walking and wanting to connect with every tree , saying hello again after a very long time, long lost friends, still able to connect and touch each other’s essence, an upwelling of union, spreading out throughout the canopy, a lightness,  a feeling of peace and then nothing. It stopped, the change was sharp and sudden and panicked.

The switch had been flipped and in continuing to walk the thoughts of a very panic stricken tower controller filled my head, a conversation occurring somewhere about why the network was being shut down.

A very concerned senior questioning a very rattled junior who had to make a split decision on the basis of what he’d been taught about how to respond to surges in the system, shut it down before major damage could be done, so that’s what he did.

More discussion. “So what actually happened?”  “Well everything was working well and then the signal started to get stronger without any explicable reason and as the signal output started to climb the worries grew and without a known cause wasn’t sure if something was going on so as a preventative measure the switch was flipped”

Check, check and triple check, nothing apparently wrong with the system and it was brought back online and the connection with the trees returned.

That night the signal from the new towers was recorded by offshore freighters at a distance that was quite unexpected and never before reached, the towers were working well, transmitters of tree talk.