The Branch That Died

My daughter came inside wailing this evening.   It sounded like anguished or scared or hurt but I wasn't sure.   My husband went to check on her and things quieted down until she walked into the bonus room where I was feeding the guinea pigs some vegetables.   She was unconsolable.   And Angry all at the same time. 

It seems that a very special branch had broken off the climbing tree in our front yard.   This branch was extremely special to my daughter, but her brother (she said with pure hatred in her tone) wanted to cut the branch up and make weapons with it.  

This was a special branch.   There was one very special part, and that's the part he wanted and I had to stop him from taking it!

I tried to honor her feelings while at the same time reassuring her that we wouldn't let him use the branch if it was important to you both.  I said it sounded like we needed a family conference on this.  

We haven't solved things yet, but when I saw the branch I understood.   There was a branch that had a low dip in it.  It was just at a height where the children could grab it and climb up the tree.   As they grew, that branch grew with them.   It was that branch that enabled all the climbing.   And now it was gone.  

The branch had died some time back but hadn't broken off.   We knew this was going to happen, but we didn't know it would be so upsetting to my daughter.   She does tend to cling to things very tightly.