Trees Outside the Window

During the last year I lived in Tehran, I was involved in a major environmental activism project to save some trees in northern Tehran neighborhood of Elahieh, where the last trees standing in Tehran lived. It was a valiant effort, and increased much awareness, but our group of a few dedicated women lost the battle when they built a tower on top of most of the fruit orchard. For a year, those trees were my life, and that building project was the nightmare I had to face everyday. It was an exciting time, too, as I got to meet many interesting people in Tehran, activists, politicians, and journalists, and learned a lot about how the bureacracy really works. My sisters came by to visit me this weekend. My younger sister looked around the house. She stopped by the windows and looked out for several minutes. She then turned to me and said, you know, for all the hard work you did for saving those trees in Elahieh, God will always put a tree outside each of your windows. That was one of the most beautiful things I ever heard in my life. I hope it's true.