"The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. [...] The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe. It's not only their unbelievable stature, nor the color which seems to shift and vary under your eyes, no, they are not like any trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time." - John Steinbeck.
As I was thinking about a fitting image for my heart, I remembered a book that has long been a favorite reader of mine for fifth grade Botany: "Big Tree" by Mary and Conrad Buff.
It tells the story of a Redwood tree through time; from its humble beginning as a tender sapling; through wind and weather; scorched by wild fires; scarred; always growing up and up; housing a pair of eagles; hosting a prospector in a hole in the bottom of the trunk; eventually marked to be cut down, Big Tree escapes that fate because of a group of committed environmentalists. It's a fictional story, of course, but the tree still stands today - in all its scarred beauty.
And I thought it to be a fitting image for my heart. There's a tenderness in the plant kingdom, but as I reflected, my heart is not a tender violet or a beautiful rose. It's a strong heart. It's weathered storms. It's been burned and scarred. There are prettier hearts for sure, but man, this heart has been on a journey!
(April 18th, 2014)
1 comment:
That is a beautiful analogy.
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