The Glorious Tree

This is a beautiful old oak tree that I met recently on a trip to Petaluma, California. It is lovingly regarded at a retreat center there. At some point it had fallen over in a storm and yet it continues to grow. It's beautiful and I found myself drawn to it.  If I'd been there alone, I would have been tempted to climb on one of the lower branches with a book and a soda and luxuriate through the day. How wonderful it would have been to have a tree like that as a child and spending the day with it as one would a precious friend.

It wasn't just the size of the tree, or it's imaginary play potential that I found irresistible. I felt a connection to its message of thriving and overcoming.  I mean, that tree was growing as magnificently as can be prior to the storm that caused it horizontal direction of growth. It was doing what every tree is made to do -- grow tall and full and glorious. I just bet that everyone expected that tree to give up and die.

Instead it gracefully took it's change in direction in stride and continued being glorious. That tree isn't just a survivor, it's a glorious conquerer of with winds of chain, the storms that life eventually brings. The older I get the worse I am about change, but this bold and beautiful tree gives me courage to continue to fully live.  Those lessons of encouragement are all around us if we just pay attention.

One Sweet Cat or "And They Called it Kitty Love"

Marie on the left and Donny hogging the plush bed.
 

Donny and Marie have been our fearless barn cats for at least seven years. They were free from a sweet family I met because there was a cardboard sign advertising the kittens at the side of the road.  I was delighted to be so resourceful as I brought them home to rid us of all manner of vermin,.

Marie turned out to be the more serious hunter of the two, but they both brought us hunting trophies from their adventures.  The first time I looked curiously down on the welcome mat and saw just the face of a vole -- well, I felt that was a rite of passage into farmer-hood. I have become quite accustomed to rodent body parts left at my back door.

Donny has been the big snuggler of the two.  Marie is quite temperamental and not one to allow you to touch her. He tended to greet everyone who came by and lavish them with attention. Of course, he expected that same lavish attention in return. The less attention you paid, the more his front claws came into play. If allowed, he would climb right up the front of you to get your full participation in this exchange of affection.

One day, in the center of the intensity of goats being born, he planted himself in the midst of the messy chaos so he wouldn't miss out on anything.

Occasionally Donny would try to take a field trip in someone's car.  I had to rescue him from a contractors truck once. And one visitor had to return to the house once she was a mile or so away to return our travel wanting cat. 

It's been a couple of weeks since we've seen Donny.  My guess is that a predator larger than he did his job in the circle of species. I try not to think about it. I ache if I think about it.

We've got a lot of animals on the property. There's 25 goats, 3 dogs, 7 chickens, 3 turtles and one cat. The are born, they live the best life we can give them and eventually they die. Just like us.

I have a whole bunch of houseplants. I'm not particularly gifted in growing but I do love having them around. The heat went  out in the house a while back and the cold Michigan winter weather caused a few unexpected deaths.

If you love having life around you -- as I do, then it stands to reason that you are going to have to experience the sorrow of death, too. You certainly can't have one without the other.

For today, I'm just grateful for the many loving years a sweet cat gave us. And, shall redouble my effort to appreciate all of life each day.