November Photo: Tree

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We saw this fabulous weather-beaten tree at Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area in Nevada.

I changed my Twitter cover image to this when the yellow brittlebush flowers I had previously chosen seemed too sunny. It looked wild and windswept, and it somehow fit my mood better.

Tree at Red Rocks, Nevada

Another day, I didn’t start out thinking about the tree. I was thinking about how I tend to feel my life needs to conform to a certain pattern, like I’m not valid if I’m not checking off a set of boxes, when – in reality – we are all writing our own stories as we go.

Life is not lined up and orderly. It is organic, unpredictable, wild.

The thoughts found their way into a short poem, and one of the images in my mind as I wrote it was that tree in Nevada.

Poem

 

Not a fence post

but a tree,

rough and irregular,

both warped by

the elements and

strengthened by them.

Each meandering ring,

a storyteller.




 

Microblog Mondays: Write in your own space

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13 Replies to “November Photo: Tree”

  1. I love wild and windswept. I’ve just been through a part of our country where all the trees along the southern coast have been bleached and “warped by the elements.” I’m going to blog about them eventually, and wish I’d taken more photos.

    1. Very cool! Can’t wait to read it!

      Also, even though I feel like I take a billion photos, I can definitely relate to the feeling of “why didn’t I get more pictures of *that*?!”

    1. So glad it resonated! I think it’s something many of us in the ALI community have had to come to terms with in some way – life didn’t go as planned but it still continues.

  2. Well, you’ve given me a lot to think about with this: “like I’m not valid if I’m not checking off a set of boxes” because this is me, too.

    Hmmm…I’m be pondering this image and your poem the rest of the day, figuring out how I might unexpectedly branch out. I think I’m due for a meander.

  3. This is lovely. And very true. Each life is so unique and yet we all tend look for prewritten paths. Though there are themes in the pattern, the reality is we will all walk our own paths.

    Thank you for the beautiful image.

    1. Exactly. I guess it’s easier to try to look at someone else’s path, but, you’re right, we all have to forge our own.

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