- Friedrich Nietsche, How to Philosophize with a Hammer
I can't help but agree with Neitsche. As I wandered through my favourite forest, I was struck by devestation. Or rather, I was struck by the forest's devestation. Recent extreme winds and rain had pelted my beloved trees and many of them were uprooted. They looked SO fallen, so vulnerable, on their sides where once they'd stood proud, their roots explosed to our eyes. To be uprooted is extreme exposure and thus vulnerability. I wondered how hard they had fought, those roots. One of their primary functions is to hold the tree secure and they'd not been able to do so. How firmly, we too, stand and how ferociously we fight when the fierce winds come, when life rants and raves. I wished I'd been able to reroot the tree. But, upon reflection, I realize it is all a part of the tree's 'treeness', it's tree-being. No doubt, these trees had grown to old age, weakened in their trunk, in their heartwood. Perhaps, falling was their last great action. After all that growing, they rest in peace, and will take their turn in the circle of life. It seems a fitting sacrifice in light of Remembrance Day.