The Juniper Award

A letter came last week. I checked in to make sure it’s ok to talk about the contents, and it is, so here we go…

Those of you who have been sharing my journey for a while will have noticed that I do a fair bit of talking about The Woodland Trust, tree love, tree protection and so forth. I’m a longstanding Woodland Trust supporter and for the last few years I’ve been doing some online volunteering.

The letter that arrived at the weekend says: “I am delighted to inform you that you have been nominated for the Juniper Award in The Woodland Trust Volunteer of the Year Awards 2019.”

This came as a bit of a surprise.

I’ve not been overwhelmed with awards during my adult life. Being nominated in this way means a great deal to me – it’s deeply validating of the work I’ve done, and cheering as well.

One of the things that comes with suffering depression is the ongoing feeling that nothing I do is good enough or makes enough difference. To have something I’ve done recognised in this way makes a lot of odds to me.  It encourages me to think that my love of trees is doing some small good in the world.

I’m going to dedicate this year’s inktober to tree and leaf drawings.