Strolling Amok

A Lesson for All of Us

A tree, just like any other tree, only more so.

Looking out the driver’s side window of the Intrepid this week got me frequent views of a pine tree. Well, I was surrounded by pine trees, but this one was special. This particular pine tree has seen better times. Caught in a forest fire at one time, it survived. The draft side of its trunk and branches are pretty well burned out. The large divot you see at its base is trunk burned away at ground level, and you can see plenty of branch stumps and scars higher up. But branches on the wind-facing side are still there, and since it can no longer grow upward at its trunk, it’s doing what it can to grow more substantial branches outward on the side that’s still there. It’s older than most of the trees around it, the others probably having perished. Though deformed from its trial, it also shows its glory, its victory in surviving. “I’m still here!” it seems to say with some defiance, “I have not given up!”

I found it inspirational. I know people like this, fortunate to have survived their crises at all, and they’re still cranking away, making the best of it, delivering a message merely by continuing to exist. They persist, and do not give up. That’s life, one very important opportunity, and one worth pursuing until the day when time finally draws it to its natural end. Keep going!