Into the Woods

After living on this plot of ground for 32 years we are finally able to do something about our patch of woods!  Over the decades the 40-foot pitch pine trees have been dying off one by one....

They are what first attracted us to this property.  The house was a one-story with walk-out-basement, built in 1952.   I was wanting a 100 year-old Victorian 2-story house.  This house wasn't even on the list to visit.  An appointment to see another house was cancelled and the realtor wanted to fill the time by taking us to this house in the neighborhood even though it was above our price range and didn't at all fit my requirement that the family room be clearly visible  from the kitchen.  As she pointed out these discrepancies (why did she bring us here then?!) I was the one to make allowances.....I'd been sold as we drove up the drive and heard the crunch of the gravel beneath the tires and then to see pitch pine trees and hear the wind whispering through their green boughs in the middle of February.....well, it all reminded me of Mamaw's farm in Mississippi.  If I could buy the only childhood memories I cherished, I was going to!  

But through the years it all became more than we could care for.  We had a growing family and an acre of grass to cut.  As the trees began to drop their branches and then die and topple over we watched our woods grow into one large bramble.  When the boys got a little older Ken cut paths through the woods and we kept those cleared, but after they grew up and left home the paths began to close up and disappear.  Vines began growing up into the trees: ivy, grapevines, and some other vine that eventually took on the appearance of a tree wrapped around another tree.  I feel certain they're the kind Tarzan would swing from!  I wouldn't let the boys play in the woods at night with their friends because of safety issues.  They were not pleased with me at all.

I feel God has lessons for us that He reveals through His creation and over the next few posts I want to flesh these out from my woods.  I'll leave you with a poem I wrote in my 10th grade English class 46 years ago while watching a film about Robert Frost's poem "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening":

As I was walking through the wood one day

And spied a tall tree that despite the wind did not sway

I thought for a moment and began to look about

For my mind was dreaming and started on it’s own route.

Misty and a dull sort of gleam

Flowed through my mind on a pearly stream

Round and round went all the clouds

Before me appeared many living shrouds.

Up and down I began to walk

And engaged myself in a friendly talk

The grassy earth beneath my feet

Carried me onward until a bird I did meet.

I greeted the bird who was quite charming

But flew from me feeling somewhat alarming

I stood in dismay and began to wonder

When out of the skies came a boisterous thunder.

The noise entwined my head with grief

But the torment was only brief

When at last came a flowing breeze

Across my face and through the leaves.

My nostrils caught a scent of green

When my eyes revealed a sight I’d never seen

A bubbling and shining of billowy foam

Flowing forth from a fountain head dome.

I was walking through the wood one day

And spied a tall tree that despite the wind did not sway

I thought for a moment and began to look about

For my mind was dreaming and started on it’s own route.

Father, You reveal yourself in many ways to us.  Help me to not only see and understand, but to do what you desire to teach me.

Link to scripture: Psalm 96:12

Take action: How to Find the Meaning in a Poem