Broken

This tree looked whole and healthy as I walked past it, heading up toward the top of Peters Hill. It succumbed to the recent wind storm that caused such damage among the conifers. As far as I could see, this was the major casualty on the Peters Hill side.

What I couldn’t see, what I didn’t know, was that this majestic oak was dying, slowly as trees do. If you walk around to the other side of the fifteen foot stump, you can see the damage, the rot.

Maybe people work that way as well. All sorts of things going wrong with us on the inside while the outside looks generally OK. Until, one day, it doesn’t. Of course the tree had its weaknesses exposed for all to see and generally people can avoid that indignity.

But slow or fast, visible or not, all living things end. It’s not something we notice very often although there is a benefit to not having it take you by surprise!