on trees and bending in the wind

We have woken this New Year’s morning in the Welsh countryside with the wind whipping around us, shaking and moving all in its path.  Through the window I can see the trees and I am watching them as they bend and shake, the now bare branches showing the structure and form behind the blossom and leaves so familiar in the summer time.  Today the trees offer no shelter from the sun or the rain, they are naked and beautiful standing proud in the gusting, blowing, angry sounding wind which feels as if it may move the mountains.  Stepping outside I am surprised to find the wind feels less angry without the walls and windows of our home to break upon. Standing in the garden I can feel its power on my face and my hair is blowing, much the same as the branches of the trees around me.  It is warm for the time of year, and as ever here in our magic place the sun is beginning to peep out from behind the clouds.

Standing in the garden that I am reminded that I have always loved trees. I love the age of them, how as we pass by every day we forget that many are older than we are, some old enough for our grandparents to have known them.  I love the way the roots, the anchor that keeps them steady and growing. are hidden from view and all the attention goes on the new growth, the blossom and the leaves that arrive each Springtime.  I love how we can shelter under their branches and how they provide for so much nature, the birds nesting and the squirrels squirrelling their nuts away within the bark.  I love the colours, the changes from season to season and from species to species.

Later this evening the wind increased ten fold and around us we could hear the rattle of doors, the banging of unsecured fixtures and fittings and the buffering of the walls surrounding us.  At times it was a little unnerving, but we snuggled up safe and warm and reassured each other that all would be well, and it was.

It seems to me that trees have a great message for all of us in the year ahead.  There sure are going to be windy days, days when it feels impossible to keep standing, but with good roots and a strong trunk we too can bend with the wind and stand up straight against the madness around us.  Instead of trying to fight adversity why not go with the flow, literally, and in doing so perhaps discover that things are not as bad as they may have first seemed. We must try to pay attention to our roots, unseen they fix us within our world.  Let us all try hard this year to hold onto our friendships, our love for our family and our history.  None of which takes any money at all. All it needs is for us all to take time to reflect and to consider and to be thankful.  Don’t forget in the whole mix of everything we are all roots for one another, the next time you see a friend in danger of snapping in the wind, make sure you hold on tight and see through the storm together.

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