“Will that light come again,
As now these tears come…falling hot and real!”
― Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese
Believe that it will, see the stump by the trail – all that remains from a silent stately tree that once reached for the sun. A breathing majestic tree that struggled alone through so many seasons of rain and wind, snow and cold, and then unfolded in summer’s warmth. Over time the sharp sawn edges soften with moss, the inside core crumbles and starts to fall apart, and then life begins anew, with small vulnerable tendrils that reach out and grow until one day a tiny blessed tree is nursed and on it way, growing from the heart wood, adding rings like a protective coat but always reaching for the light.