Last week I posted some thoughts on Carpe Diem, the desirability of seizing the day. This certainly makes life a great deal more interesting but not always easier. When I need a bit of encouragement during a tough patch I can always find it along the back road of our city park.
You think humans live in a tough world, just think about trees. Each and every one of your neighbors is trying to get the same light and water that you need to survive. And survive they do under the most extreme conditions.
Trees growing straight out of a cliff face. There must be just enough dirt in that crevice for them to hang on.
And not just little trees either. This sizable specimen is clutching at the rocks as if to say, "Sure I'll go down some day. But I'm takin' some of you with me".
Further down the road there is a natural spring. These trees are effectively growing straight up through a glacier.
This last photo does not exactly do this tree justice. What kind of strain must it be under to grown down, then up again? My own ups and downs are trivial in comparison.
I guess if mere plant life can stand up to this sort of stress and strain then I should not complain about the vexing but certainly not life and death things I have to wrestle with of late....
Amigo -
ReplyDeleteAll of us are born owing the"Cosmic Principle" (however named) one death. Very simple to understand and a bitch to live.
Everybody chooses.
The Old Man
Very true. And one might as well go down in happy defiance. Time is the enemy that never takes prisoners, that always flies the Black Flag of No Quarter. I identify with that old gnarled tree at the top of the cliff that is gonna take a bunch of rocks down when it goes.
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