fallen tree

I'm sitting on a fallen tree, by the coast path in Cornwall. The birds are singing, and I can hear the waves lapping on the rocks far below. The remarkable thing about this fallen tree, though, is that it has had a second life. There is a long section of trunk lying along the ground, and at the end of it a branch has grown to become a new trunk, in turn branching into a tree. And this second life is looking vibrant. If you don't look towards the ground, you would not suspect that there was anything unusual about this tree. It looks perfectly healthy.

And seeing this tree, it reminded me of the second chance at life that a human being gets, when he or she steps into a spiritual journey. Before that we tend to live one life, trying to be happy by rather superficial means, usually materialistic ones. Then, often when all of that has turned to dust, if we are lucky, we enter a spiritual path. It is as if our own life has fallen to the ground, like this tree trunk, but then a new branch, turning at right angles to that old trunk, grows forth: a completely new direction. And in this, this second life, if we are lucky, like this tree, we can grow to be fulfilled, healthy, and whole.

This is what is coming to me today, as I sit with this remarkable tree.