Think About How a Tree Stays Put.

Whatever the wind, whatever the weather throws at it, a tree remains where it rooted. It may fall, but it can’t walk away.

All day, all night, in exactly one spot on the face of the planet, for centuries sometimes.

So permanent is a healthy tree, that the Salish peoples would mark them as landmarks for navigating.

If a bear scratches its back on the trunk, the tree stands. Squirrels race around it and store their nuts in it…the tree stands.

Birds and insects make their homes in it, raise their new generations in it, and the tree…the tree stands.

The tree witnesses whatever happens around it. It is there when the bobcat takes its prey and when the fledgling birds leave the nest.

Under its canopy the deer shelters from the rain, and in summer the shade provides respite for all kinds of forest wildlife, and humans, too.

Through drought, thunderstorms and blizzards…the tree is still rooted to that one spot on the earth.

It is the very definition of steadfast, of constant, abiding, resolute and true. Something we could use more of these days.