LIFE AND DEATH IN THE FOREST

There is a beautiful Elm tree in our forest. An Elm that has grown and matured over 3 decades in the deep shadows of our forest. Standing mighty among all the Oaks and Pines, the lone Elm has weathered the heat, the wind, the rain, and the ice of many seasons gone by. Planted precariously on the sloop and near the natural flow of the water, the tree had withstood many-many a storm over its life. A storm of massive proportions finally worked to pull the mighty Elm to the floor of the forest. In a huge gust of wind, while I sat and listened to the storm, the mighty Elm came crashing down among the giants of the forest. A sound like no other, the seemingly slow, but all too swift fall of the beautiful tree rang through the night with a WHOOSH. My heart fell, for I knew what had come. A thing of great beauty would lie on the forest floor and after the dark had passed, I would see it lying dead on the ground from which it had grown.
The very roots of life clung to the soil from which it life came. The tree seemed doomed to dry and wither as the sap of it's lifeblood slowly stopped its path into the body of the tree.

Lying propped among the other trees, the only solution seemed to be to wait for the Forrester to come and cut it up and take it away. A beautiful tree would return to the earth.

There are no words to describe the sick feeling of discovery of a rare beauty-one different from the others-lying waiting for the death that would surely come.

Three weeks later and there is no brown. There seems some small faint hope that the tree could live. With ropes and pulleys, the tree is winched and pulled from the forest floor-a slow difficult task.

Seemingly lost, the tree struggled to stay on the ground and wait for death to come. The Forrester was determined the tree would live and pulled with a mighty tug. Up Up came the tree.

The Forrester looks on and determines the support the tree will need. He rights what the wind had toppled and works to save that which is sacred and true. The mighty tree will stand with support all around to hold it up until the life giving roots once again anchor the beautiful tree in the deep dark forest.

Resurrected from the dead and standing again, the Elm lives for yet another season. Will the Elm survive the next storm? Will the ravages of time and the world surrounding it once again push it to the ground? Only time will tell-but for now The Tree still stands.