Trees – If One Falls in the Forest?

Trees. They make up the forest. I mean, is there a forest without trees. Trees. They fall in the forest. There is even a philosophical dilemma that is asked, “If a tree falls in the forest, and there is no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Don’t worry, I am not going to debate that today (but no promises about tomorrow!)

But I could ask, “If a tree falls on the Virginia portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway, does anybody know?” I headed north and was going to hike in the Rockfish Gap area on the northern most section of the BRP. But upon arrival, I discovered the entire BRP was closed. I get Helene made some damage to the south, but oh well.

Therefore, I headed into the Shenandoah NP and did a tiny trek near the Loft Mountain Wayside. The weather was perfect. The vision was clear. The crowd was minimal. The wildlife was aplenty, including lots of cyclists in their spandex.

Trees fall. Yesterday, I started to notice trees. Not the beautifully colored leaves. Not the variety of hard and soft wood filling out this area of the SNP. I noticed how many of the trees had fallen. Trees fall.

So I analyzed a few things and how this related to our lives (the whole purpose of the blog site – look at things around us and connect to our journey.)

Why did the trees fall? Some fell because they were old. They had grown and grown less able to handle the storms and hardships that they had prevailed against for decades. This was not a steadfast rule, for many younger and smaller trees scattered the forest bed as well.

Some fell for they were rotted, especially from within. This could be due to disease or to infestation. They key was something damaged them to the point they couldn’t withstand gravity or storms anymore.

Others fell for they had no or little root support. Had they outgrown it? Had the rocky floor bed caused a lack of growth? Or just a bad tree?

Old? Rotted? No support? Maybe one or combination of any of the three, they all ended up fallen.

Life … the longer we live, the more we get weathered and worn down … if we are not cautious and preventive, rottenness can get within us and cause cause major brokenness … no support win our journey means we have no one to lean on, no one to help us, and no one to lift us when we stumble. Trees are a lot like our journey.

Then there is what happened to the trees once they fell.

• Most just lay where they lay. No one messes with them, and the circle of life continues. Their impact had ended.
• Others were sliced and diced to remove them from being a hindrance to those that would journey that way. Their impact again had ended, and even completely removed so not to make some one to walk around or have to step over.
• And then, there were the trees that got recycled.
  • Some were laid along the trail to be guides and a barrier.
  • Some were laid specifically to the side to be like a bench … large enough for hikers to sit down and grab a short respite.
  • Some were laid along and dug into the path to assist in preventing erosion or to be a step on a location that could give an aid to trekkers.
  • Some were sliced and diced into firewood. Still they were being beneficial.
  • And lastly, some might have even been made furniture. Coming from a hike in the NPS, this was probably done without permission, but still possible

Again, in our journey, we too can be cast aside and ignored. We can have continuing impact in helping fellow journeyers … no heritage, no legacy … or impact from generation to generation.

Trees fall. And from fallen trees, we see our journey too.