Whirling Blades

 Climbing that long hard hill this morning I thought back over how hard it was to make the decision to have the road back to the house paved. My Dad had the road cut to build the house back on the ridge above the water.  It kept the house secluded and surrounded by the neighboring woods and created a wonderful retreat.  He maintained himself with a backhoe but after his death keeping it up become more and more difficult.  Also, if there was snow or ice of any real substance, then the steep hill on part of it could be impassable for days.  So, after lots of thought, our family decided to deed over the once private road to the county.

Now when the weather is bad, they come and gravel and ice, other folks have moved in to the surrounding woods and what was once wilderness has become tamed.  It also means that a couple of times during the year the country road crews arrive with the bush hog cutters to trim the sides of the road and the limbs over the power lines. Years ago the men climbed the trees and chainsawed out the limbs--a slow and arduous task Now there is this incredible spinning blade right out of a horror film that shears off all in its path.  It has been a difficult result of our decision to absorb.

Walking along the road this morning I looked up to see the sheared scars on the trunks of the pines and hardwoods bordering the road.  I am pragmatic enough to understand it was a necessary sacrifice, but I couldn't help but think of that Elton John song from Lion King--the line from the Circle of Life which runs: "some people sail through their troubles, and some have to live with the scars."  We all have experiences that reflect that line.  Looking back over our lives, many of us will have vivid memories of  being sheared back, cut off at the trunk the way those white pines were along the big hill.  There are few words to acknowlege and honor the experience it seems is an essential aspect of living.  We will run up against events and relationships that will ask us to sacrifice what we thought was a perfectly good part of ourselves for something beyond our understanding...even something that we may intellectually know is for the greater good of ourselves and others.   But the shearing off, the peeling away down to our trunks...that can be horrible.

The world this beautiful Spring morning, feels more tenuous and fragile than ever.  What is happening?  Where are we going?  The whirling, shearing blade is merciless and relentless.  I was thinking about this as I turned and started back down the hill  Our world is so very beautiful and we have suffered so much in the decisions we have as to how we live in it....in our own lives, our families, our governments and nations.  At the curve in the road I looked off to the side, and there were the delicate blooms of the service berry, their white faces graceful and modest. In the wide stretch of gray tree trunks, it stood alone, luminous. The quite simplicity of its beauty lifted me from my sadness and awakened my faith.  Yes, it is true there is much about living we will not understand, but in my heart, I will continue to believe that what comes to us, even the whirling blades, carries more than destruction and scarring.  We will always have the choice to take what remains and make something meaningful and beautiful and better from what is left behind.  Let us take heart and prevail.