My home, my forest, my sadness

I find myself in the house I grew up in as a teenager. Just waking up, I make my way to the kitchen for some tea. I turn on some music to start my day and started clattering around. I then realized my father was sleeping, all curled up in blankets on the couch in the living room. I didn't wake him, but decided I should probably be a little more quiet, I thought I was the only one in the house, but evidently not.

I step outside into the back yard and notice a huge orange tarp over the neighbor's entire yard. I thought that was strange. I noticed that the fence that once surrounded the entire yard of my old house had fallen apart and one whole section next to the street was missing. I then noticed a very elaborate deck, much larger and nicer than what was originally there (which my dad had built with friends in real, waking life). I noticed a wheelchair ramp made of beautiful red wood, that strangely led up to three steps. I wondered why anyone would build a ramp that led up to stairs. I then saw my dad out on the deck working on it and repairing it with a friend. I overheard them talking about how to access the house by wheelchair and how one would have to go all the way around the house and enter through the old garage that was falling apart.

I then decide to leave and start walking down the road through my old neighborhood. In reality, this is a city street, lined with houses and roads, with no parks or green space. However, as I am walking in this area, I come up to a beautiful greenbelt, that is actually a breath-taking forest. This isn't just any forest, it seems absolutely enchanted and divine, with bright gold rays of sun beaming through the trees. The closer you got to the middle, the more peaceful and joyful it made you feel.

Suddenly, a voice tells me the forest is going to be torn down. I look down around me and see that all around this forest were stakes laid out for future construction of homes, a development. My heart sunk and I felt helpless that such a place of beauty and peace was going to be destroyed forever for the construction of homes that probably weren't even needed.

How could anyone not feel the pain of bulldozing this enchanted place? We're simply turning our world of beauty and enchantment into a man-made landscape of destruction and emptiness in the name of development. It was difficult enough to see this tiny belt of beauty and nature within the current neighborhood that surrounded it; it was even more difficult to accept the fact that what was left would soon be removed from the Earth forever...