Rooted Against the Wind

 The wind is a persistent, if unpredictable foe.  Some days strong and steady, some days coming at you from all directions in short blasts, some days altogether missing.  Yet trees manage to resist the wind, digging their roots deep into the ground or clinging tenaciously in places where soil is more of a dream than a reality.  I feel if I have a motto in life - it is to focus on the solution, rather than the problem.  Trees teach us the value of our roots when facing adversity, and I feel lucky to be rooted by my connections to my family, particularly, my mother's unshakable belief in me and her love.  Having roots gives me the confidence to approach my life as a hunt for solutions, rather than get mired in the energy sapping game of seeing myself as the victim of my problems.  This lone pine is rooted in deep, but likely nutrient poor soil, it has been shaped by the wind, but has prevailed - because of its roots, flexibility, and simply focusing on the things it can control, rather than the ones it can.   If this year has taught anything, it is to be a tree.

I realized that I've yet to publish my musings on New Year's eve, and after re-reading them - while mostly a humorous self reflection on the strange things one does in a pandemic, I'm not sure I've the will to edit them to the point of publishing them.... which makes this my official first post of the year.

A few weeks ago while checking the links to other blogs on mine,  I discovered that most of the cohort of blogs that I started with have long ceased to exist.  That left me feeling oddly sad - as there is something more substantial about a blog post than a social media post.  At one point in my life, my blogging community was an important part of my existence - and I miss their musings on life (and beautiful pictures).  So, I'm going to continue to try to make an effort to keep this one going a little longer (its 16 years old after all) and perhaps find some new blogs to build a community with.