Today was spent having our annual campfire in the middle of our garden burning sticks and winter mess around the yard. It was fitting that after a day spent out in the trees and brush, my favorite nature columnist, North Cairn, would write about what we could learn from trees. After reading the ideas she brought forth, I definitely am inspired to be a tree.
She was quoting a passage out of a very old book she rescued and restored about appreciating life, here, by the sea. The book was called “The Primal Alliance: Earth and Ocean” by Richard Kaufman and John Hay. I loved the part she quoted about trees:
“Birch, oak, spruce, arborvitae, pine, and hemlock, each in their way vulnerable because they have to stand and take it, unable to move like animals in search of better conditions of light, moisture, and freedom from enemies, stretch next to each other, continually in exchange with their surrounding. Trees may not have “passion” attributed to them, but they endure as much competitive ardor, and disaster and tense exactitude as the rest of us.”
The tree reminds me that there is competitive ardor, disaster, and tense exactitude (a great noun) in our everyday lives and there always will be. The best way to withstand the forces of these is to be like the tree – stand there and take it. Trees can’t run and hide and protect themselves. They just stand there in all their great majesty, raise their limbs to the sky, and “take it” – the rain, the storms, the extremes of heat and cold, the wind, and, in spite of it all, they continue to grow and reach for the sky. What a great way to approach the things that sneak up and shake our days – be a tree.
And so, as another day goes by, I find myself staring at the trees outside my window with a new respect, and …I have written.
Just have to comment on the tree idea—-soooooooooooo true—see you Wed. Save me a seat and i’ll do the same. Joan