After the Storm

We recently had a major ice storm that over a week period slowly broke limb after limb off of our beloved Post, Spanish, and Live Oak trees...It was like a slow-mo version of Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Tree" turned into reality.

At one point, Greg, knowing my deep love for trees, came into the house stating, "Don't go out there...it's bad."

I cried.

I mourned for our nearly 100-year-old trees, which I knew had seen and experienced more life than I will in twenty lifetimes, that were shattering under the weight of ice that they were never created to hold...in a climate that is drastically shifting due to our human actions.

The next day though, I awoke, put on my work clothes and a favorite Pandora list, and Greg and I started the recovery process, which entailed mostly dragging tons (literal tons) of branches into piles around our property. And let me tell you...for a non-caffeinated being, I WAS ON FIRE!

An excitement took me over as it hit me that this was just a microcosm of my losses in life.

The unforeseen taking place.

Shock.

Sadness.

A bit of anger...

And then...

and it's my favorite "then"...

Picking up the pieces. Recovery. Resilience. The Phoenix Rising!

It was a physical manifestation of what I had been doing inwardly for years, and man, to put that movement/action into play was empowering beyond words.

The trees are undoubtedly scarred.

Some have lost over half of their limbs.

Others are cracked in half...and yet...when I stepped out of the place of viewing it from my window and feeling helpless, and into a place of getting outside of my house(and self), nurturing, stacking, and mending the mendable....damn...Game.Changer.

Nature does not complain about nature being nature...storms, freezes, droughts...and yet, how easy is it for us to complain or feel hurt about life being life.

Thank you for these lessons.