Time to be a tree

Gary and I went to Yellowstone this past weekend  - a much needed getaway. As we traveled through the park I was amazed at all of the new trees, even though this park and many of its formations and geological wonders are exceptionally old, the park had a feeling of "starting over" if you will.

I'm not one that likes to quit, nor do I like having to do things over a 2nd or 3rd time because I didn't get it right in the first place. But the trees had me thinking....am I really doing things over? Or am I just giving myself a clean slate and a new start? Or is anything completely new?

The fires that ravaged Yellowstone in the late 80's left nothing but burned out sticks for miles and miles and miles of hillside. To be honest, it looks pretty desolate and ugly. I remember visiting Yellowstone VERY briefly in 1996 after my sister's wedding reception in Newdale, Idaho. I couldn't believe the desolate waste that was left. I couldn't imagine how this place would ever look good again.

For those of you who don't know my husband, he is an outdoors/scout/wealth of knowledge type guy. As we drove and hiked Yellowstone I learned a lot of things from him - for example.....fireweed.

This pretty pink flower is one of the first things to return to a forest following a fire. He said that after a fire it pops up very quickly and that the hillsides that were devastated were soon covered in pink. It thrives in a place where resources have been depleted and keeps the hillside from eroding away too much. Because so much time has passed since the big fires this flower has almost disappeared again - it cant compete with the other plants.

Anyway...back to my tree thoughts.

As we hiked I saw this amazing array of tree life in its various stages (prepare for the mutated photo essay). I tried to take these pictures so you could get my perspective, I'm not a photographer by any stretch of the imagination, so I hope this comes out ok.

While this is not the smallest tree I saw, it worked out to be in the right place at the right time. When fires go through a pine forest the pinecones drop and open to release their seeds. There is no other natural way for these pinecones to open for various varieties of tree (as far as I understand). So for this little tree to have a start, it literally has to come through fire. I've had my share of fires to go through, and I know that I have left behind many things that protected me but have come out with new thinking, ideas and ways of doing things for the better.

I know the colors blend some, but in the right side of this picture you see the first little tree compared to its sibling who has been growing a bit longer. Interesting how the perspective changes, isnt it. In the picture above he looks like a solid, decent size tree, but really he didn't come up much higher than my knee. His sibling has obviously made some great strides since the fire....There are ideas, methods and ways of doing things that are in a different place following my (many) personal fires, they have a more solid look and feel to them and I'm more comfortable with them.

Here are the two little trees in the front, with a much more mature tree behind them. Again, you now see how much growth they need to have before they are well established. There are things in my life that are well established, that will continue to grow and be a force in keeping the "new growth" safe from harsh winds and over exposure.

Can you find the little trees?? Sometimes my new experiences and thoughts can be overshadowed by the old, more established things that I am more comfortable with...and once in a while, that is ok. There is nothing wrong with holding onto the things we are comfortable with, as long as we know when we need to be nurturing the new.

This burned out tree was a ways off of the other trees, but it may be the tree that seeded these others. How can the old, established things in our ways be a way to "seed" the new? Well, for example, my love of learning led me to a workshop this summer that will help me implement "new" things in my classroom and while my love of learning will not burn up and go away I certainly will be shedding old ways of thinking.

Last, the old things go by the wayside, but help nurture the new with their decomposition. By realizing the way I used to do things and understanding their effective or ineffectiveness I can help my new ways of thinking and understanding to grow.

In thinking about it now, I'm glad I've been done over by fire once or twice. Glad that I've had new ideas and ways of doing things "pop" open in he midst of trauma and disaster, grateful for the old nurturing the new, but secure in letting the old go when it was time.

Is it time for you to be a tree??