A tale of two trees (Narnian and Northumbrian!)

[@LexHawthorne]

Mr. Guite, Would you do all of us the honor of reading through the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings? Perhaps just a chapter a week. Thank you for your contribution to God's Kingdom and continue to charge further up and further in.

[@matiapolano1552]

Just such a guy. Love his voice and soul. Someone to really bring us back down to earth and to the little, ordinary, and magical things. If there was ever a voice, a person, who I'd want to hear when I am plagued by trouble and losing hope, it is this man. Love this guy.

[@briandoub4866]

My family has very fond memories of the sycamore gap tree. One Easter Sunday after church we took a walk along Hadrian’s wall. The day started out sunny and warm, but a short snowstorm blew in, very cold and windy. We took shelter under the sycamore and behind the wall until it blew through. Quite a beautiful experience on resurrection Sunday.

[@stevebradley704]

Northumbrian here. Born and bred. Its sprouted again. A resurrection of sorts.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

yes I heard that good news!

[@t.j.johnsonthewriter]

Great! As always. Could you do a video on all of your pipes and tobaccos? I’d love to see them😊

[@botanyguy]

I woke up and listened to this over my morning coffee. What a great way to start my day. Thank you for such wisdom and reading. Bless you!

[@tHEdANKcRUSADER]

Happy Armistice Day to my poetic pipe friends

[@wendy-moore]

Ah, yes, I love the door idea. Thank you for a lovely start to the day.

[@stuartgreen4512]

Another blessed trip to the library. A perfect morning accompaniment to my cup of coffee and a break from the electric hum of work life. Truly a refreshing of my own spirit.

[@marybrewer2203]

Well. What a pleasant addition to my morning ritual. Have a blessed day, Malcolm.

[@suzanne5781]

I am listening to you in the middle of the night here in Australia - the felling of that wonderful old tree was on the news here. I felt so sad about it. This is a wonderful talk. Thank you so much!

[@dalemahfood7638]

So sorry to hear about the felling of the tree, but thanks for making it an object lesson for us. Also, I like your idea about making a door with part of the tree.

[@shannonbaker2084]

Lovely, lovely story and readings, Malcolm, thank you. And so sad at what befell the beautiful sycamore. I do hope the powers that be take up you idea of making a door out of some of its wood.

[@jenpedwards]

Oh I do hope they make a door! And instruments too! I love both of these readings! Thank you as always Malcolm!

[@JoshuaGraham-i4d]

what a lovely story and connection. Your door idea reminds me of an ancient roman temple which stood in the roman forum, known as the Temple of Janus. It was a small temple with a statue of Janus, the two-faced god of boundaries and beginnings inside. Its doors were known as the "Gates of Janus", which were closed in times of peace and opened in times of war. It would be great if the wood could make the doors to a reconstructed temple on the same spot (a kind of art installation). Symbolising the connection between worlds/nature etc. The doors could be opened and closed depending on world wide events, such as closed on the death of a monarch or news of foreign war, and opened all other times (or royal weddings etc).

[@stefsomful]

Wow this rich reminder of an overlooked reference is still resonating with me this morning - hours after I first heard it's retelling. I have a 50yr old walnut tree in my garden that we saved from being split in half by cutting off the weighty half that was threatening to tear the tree asunder. That discarded half unfortunately was used as firewood. However the walnut tree responded to being saved by sending forth many new healthy branches that now cover the scar of it's amputated half and the walnuts it now produces are finer than ever! To me that walnut tree is magic!

[@asacraig9876]

I love the idea of turning the wood of a tree into a door!

[@yusufsayed1583]

Good Evening 😊 Had a busy day to come home and watch this awesome video👌🏽Thanks for the beautiful read 📜 God bless you 🙏🏽 Greetings from South Africa 🇿🇦

[@TerryC69]

Many thanks for inviting us into your study again.

[@mrickenbacherwest]

Brilliant. Love the door idea. It would be a beautiful thing to create the door and then hang it at the spot where the tree stood. Make a frame, threshold and tiny roof with eaves above it and one could pass from one side to the other and back again as in the wardrobe. Thank you for again making these wondrous connections with your poetry and weaving words sir.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

That's a great idea!

[@jcmullins3871]

Glad to see you this morning. Have a Blessed Day

[@aljurje]

Love, love, love your videos. Watching a few of them already while sipping some red wine and a dram of Scotch.

[@michaellong7136]

It would be so wonderful if we all had a friend/friends or family members we could gather with in person and have these types of readings and discussion! Especially over a pint and a pipe 😉

[@r.j.b.1645]

Beautiful! Thank you. This brought back memories of three old friends from my childhood; all of them trees.

[@colingallagher1648]

many thanks for all your stuff and much love to guys

[@dubcount]

YES! a door put where the tree once stood i think that would be magnificent.

[@StDavidpipes]

Good to see you Dr. Guite . Smashing video mind.

[@greyfeather7857]

Always a blessing and education to listen to you. Thankful for your insights and knowledge passed onto us 📖🙏🏻

[@stuartmccrea]

Malcolm - what a pleasure to meet you today at the Lewis symposium in Belfast, and share in the experience of viewing some of Lewis’ letters. It struck me how succinct, yet profoundly deep they were.

[@sandraevans7881]

That was wonderful. Thank you so much. I have often had moments of 'clarity' about the Christian life reading Narnia - good to hear you speak of them. What a gift C S Lewis gave us in all these beautiful, helpful images and episodes.

[@KateKing217]

Delightful ♥️🙏🏾🌹

[@lindajeancountrymusic]

My brother, who is a writer, told me about your channel....i am enchanted and a new sub! Thank you!

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

welcome!

[@conservativejoe4025]

That's it. I say, "That wood must be made into a wardrobe!" There would be a no more fitting tribute to a British-born sycamore!

[@RamblinJan]

Excellent video Malcom!

[@matthewpeterson3517]

I love the reading you are doing recently

[@graceygrumble]

Lovely thought. I wish that the powers that be (and Antony Gormley, perhaps) could be persuaded to create a 'Sycamore' work of art, to fill the gap... and The Gap.

[@stevegreat7193]

Malcom, you may know already, but there used to be a custom of, when twins were stillborn, two oak trees were planted above the graves.. I always think of that when I pass a pair of oak trees in a field.

[@rmartel919]

Thank you so much, Malcolm. In the summer of 2022 a number of trees in the Public Gardens of Halifax, Nova Scotia, were vandalized, their bark stripped off in deep wide rings. Many of the damaged trees were favorites of mine, such as the willow next to the Boer War memorial, and the London Plane planted by school children in the late 1800's in memory of a Lieutenant who had died in service overseas. My family and I wondered what motivated those who perpetuated the vandalism. Did they feel disenfranchised? ignored? Did they see themselves as valued less by society than those trees?

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

its a good set of questions.

[@loymedic]

If sycamore was a “useable” wood, then a limited collection of Peterson “Shire” church wardens would also be a fantastic connection and lasting tribute as well…

[@WalksSlow]

Vandalism of this sycamore tree immediately reminded me of Coleridge’s note about the wanton killing of the exhausted hawk lost at sea, “Oh strange lust of murder in man!“ Tragic.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

yes, that's a good connection

[@DanielKellyFolkMusic]

Safe travels Malcolm, I hope they don’t make pencils out of it! I spotted the US $1 from your recent trips. The school mates of my 9yr old son would not believe I had been performing at a festival in Ohio last month. I gave him a US $1 to show them as proof. But, like the dwarves in the Last Battle, they still didn’t believe.

[@crusader2112]

Wonderful video. I think I heard about the tree being chopped down. Damn tragedy. Anyways, have a good Veteran’s/Remembrance Day! 👍

[@3riverspiper1792]

Malcolm, a marvellous idea regarding a door, may I take your idea a little further with this addition, Sycamore is a hard and strong wood, as such could a "symbolic" gate be constructed from the timber near the site of the original tree ? 🙏 Steve.

[@jloronlavoie245]

Exquisite!

[@richqualls5157]

I hope you continue to read us books, book passages and poetry.

[@asazeel]

I can't help but think he needs a pocketwatch. Am I alone in thinking this?

[@peterwynn4088]

Or perhaps just the frame of a door...

[@kurtisneilmcinnis8353]

Good suggestion!

[@danielosullivan3110]

Thank you, brother. Have a blessed Veterans Day 11/11 here in USA ❤️‍🔥☘️🙏Am I wrong to assume this magic you speak of ,is not of God?

[@tdoran616]

Thank you, we call it Remembrance Day here in the UK 🇬🇧 🤝 🇺🇸

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

I think it is of God, like all the good magic in Narnia

[@danielosullivan3110]

​@@MalcolmGuitespellthanks❤️‍🔥

[@sonjachastain5619]

I was writing a piece, a sort of lowering in the country a tree, in Robyn Hood wantingly fell mindless vandelius what to do with it's wood 🪵🪓 a little adendon of nephew backstory of famous wardrobe sycamore gap tree 🎄🌴

[@loymedic]

Please do let us know what the outcome is for all of that wood that deserves something far more special than to be turned into mundane pencils or firewood!

[@peterjames2580]

I vote a stringed instrument .

[@devinreese1397]

Not the Valinorean???

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

not those, though they are at the heart of a far grander tale!

[@sonjachastain5619]

Laton waste

[@jimbojet8728]

I am sitting here watching you smoke your pipe and listening to your stories. I wonder whether you have decided to accept the fact that you are killing yourself with the toxic fumes and acids being forced into your chest , and that cancer and the resulting horrible death is worth the price to pay. As an Ambulance crewman who has had close contact with so many men and women who have lived out their last months and weeks with cancer , I can tell you they ALL regretted their smoking careers. Begged me to never touch cigarettes or develop any sort of smoking habit. Likewise alcoholics in their last days, suffering dreadfully wishing they’d never taken that first sip. Is it that as an Anglican priest you are pleased that they and yourself, are the sooner to be with their or your god? How do you justify showing smoking and drinking to be such an enjoyable pastime when both those filthy habits cause so much pain and suffering. Which type of tobaccos do you prefer and are you a single malt man?

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

I think these things can be enjoyed in moderation with intermittent periods of abstinence. I try not to judge people, especially not online.