Question: How long does it take to grow a beech tree?
Answer: It takes about 120 years to reach its full height.
Question: How long does it take to destroy a beech tree?
Answer: About 3 or 4 minutes, if you have the right equipment.
The beech trees next to us were at least 120 and probably nearer 200 years old but in the space of a few minutes they were gone. All of them.
As far as I know the developers had not been given planning permission to remove them, but the one thing you can't do is put them back again once they have been felled.
It's like the toothpaste that has been squeezed out of the tube and can't be put back in again, or the words that have been spoken and heard but cannot then be unspoken. (We've all uttered a few of these, I'm sure.) Or the misplaced kick or pass in a game of rugby that is intercepted by the opposition. (Ask the Scotland rugby team about that one after this weekend!)
On the other side of the coin are the things that are easily started but not so easily stopped.
I remember telling the children in the church once about a petrol hovermower we used to have. Unlike many such mowers this one actually started quite easily, but one day it just refused to stop. I even tried some not very clever moves, like jumping on top of it - to no great effect. Since I had only just filled the petrol tank and it was likely to go on churning away for a good couple of hours, I eventually had to do the even sillier thing of yanking out the lead to the spark plug. It worked. Deprived of its vital spark it finally admitted defeat.
As we enter the season of Lent it is worth reflecting again on some of the things in life that are much easier started than stopped.
