On Friday I took a walk in a nearby Christmas tree farm. Many people who live near to me walk there. It’s quite beautiful. I walked in the morning because in the afternoon the tree farm would be filled with people buying trees–or rather cutting down trees.
As I walked I looked at the trees. I noticed how many of them were actually new trees grown from the trunk of a tree that had been cut down by a happy Christmas tree shopper. Each time someone cuts a tree, a new tree sprouts from the stump. The same thing happens with the Redwoods that grow around my home. When the loggers came through the area, they cut many trees. Now new trees have grown out of those stumps. Additionally, baby trees grew in circles around the stumps, creating beautiful “cathedrals.”
Trees have an amazing resiliency. We can actually learn a lot from them. When something is cut or torn away from them–when they lose something essential, they simply grow it back. We tend to focus on what we have lost rather than on how we can create something new to take it’s place or to replace in some way that vital element we need or miss. We would do better to focus our attention on discovering ways to survive without what we have lost and to create something new out of the loss.
Thinking about trees also reminds me of the huge loss of trees in Israel due to the raging wildfire in the Carmel Mountains. You can help put the fire out by donating to one of these two organizations.
