Gnarled Tree - a Freewrite

I am sitting here, on my sofa, at home. Finally - or is that weird to think that after so many months of just being at home.
Here I am. Sitting on my sofa and looking out the window at a beautiful gnarled tree. I know the person that houses this particular tree in his yard and I know that the tree is gnarled because he doesn't know how to trim a tree and just hacks at it ever so often.
There is an art to trimming a tree. A way to do it to cause very little hurt, encourage new growth in the direction to help the tree.
To allow sunlight to come in, to allow room for all the branches. No rubbing or breaking or any of the many things that will give a tree character - I give you that - but it can ultimately kill the poor thing as well.
Trees are so strong and resilient and they survive so much. Like a treehouse nailed into its branches and hacking the tree in whichever which way.
But they also are so sensitive to so many things. Like the temperature in the area just changing a little bit. It gets a bit warmer and borer beetles can survive and munch away on under the bark and kill the poor thing.
Or, little kids with knives - a bad combination in case you are wondering - get it in their heads that they need to peel the bark off a tree to do something with - haven't figured out what the something was. Probably it was just fun to see the bark come off in long strips.
Like I said - kids and knives = no good!

Join us in the Freewrite Fun. Find a new prompt every day on my profile. Please post to the Freewriters community.