Oct. 25, 2008 - Survival

I've passed by this tree a number of times, walking along a wooded path that winds around a fairly steep hill in a local park. The twisted, gnarled base has always caused me to stop and look, not because it was "pretty", but because the tree had obviously managed to survive a very long time in a spot that was hardly conducive to maintaining life. The ground is anything but flat, the soil there is sandy, and the sun has a difficult time penetrating the trees that surround this one. But survive it did. I'm sure that all of the twisted sections disappearing into the ground are simply attempts by the tree over the years to find both support and water. What made me stop and photograph it on this particular outing was, of course, the red leaves.

Perhaps it is an overly simplistic metaphor, but we could all learn much from this tree. And from the red leaves.