Day 33 - Still There

Day 33 is a picture of a couple of things that I noticed yesterday morning as I came in to work. It has warmed up, yes spring is really gonna get here!  The small spots of snow seem somewhat pleasant to me.  I think it feels like a victory over winter.  It is like it is slowly going away in defeat.  This winter, especially the last month or so, were tough on me, physically and mentally.  I felt like I struggled through it and when I see the snow going away and the warmer temperatures starting to be more the norm, I feel that better times are ahead.

I am not sure if the stump in the picture has been a stump since before Stan Bahrns built the building here on South Banker or if it was a tree at that time, but right now I only remember it being a stump.  I have noticed it a time or two over the past twenty plus years, but I guess I never really looked at it.  It still holds it's ground.  The owner may have cut the tree down, but in some ways it still won the battle by still being a part of the landscape in that yard.  The stump doesn't really serve any purpose to the owner of the land, but yet it still stands as if it belongs there.  I enjoy seeing the occasional squirrel sitting on it, or the birds that land on it for a quick rest before flying off to some other place.  I park across from the stump every day and glance in it's direction a few times a day without even giving it a second thought.  Now I wonder if it was cut down because it was diseased, or had damage from a storm or was it just in the way of what was built around it?

Like the tree, many times we go through life only affecting those that depend on us to help them survive.  I am sure to the animals that made their homes in this tree it was an important part of their lives.  From the size of the trunk it was a pretty big tree and I am sure it provided a lot of shade and beauty in it's prime.  By branching out of our normal life we may have the opportunity to touch the lives of others, even for a brief moment.  I have read it many times and truly believe that the people that come into and out of our lives do so for a certain reason.  Some of the people that I saw every day and helped make me the person I am now have passed.  I am grateful for the efforts sacrifices they made to be a part of my life.  I know that there are friends I grew up with that have moved or I have lost touch with when I moved that still helped me be the person I am.  There are a few people that came into my life that brought not so happy memories with them, even they still are an important part of who I am.  I may have been something completely different without those influences, but I feel that through it all I have become a person that most times I am happy with.

At certain times in my life I felt like this stump, cut off and somewhat useless.  Now I feel I am still standing like the tree this stump once was, thanks to some and in spite of others.  I feel that there were a few over the years that caused damage that if allowed could have destroyed me, but in so many ways  it may have weakened me for a short time to only allow me to grow stronger in the end.  My challenge to you today is to do whatever it is you can do to become stronger.  Don't let someone cut you down with their "chainsaws".  If you witness someone causing damage to another please stand up and help if you can.  Notice those around you that may need some extra care and if you can offer it please do.  There are times, though in everyone's life that they have to kick into survival mode and may not have the extra to help others because it is taking all they have to take care of themselves.  If you are in this part of your life and you need the extra care, reach out for it - you may be surprised at how much help is there and how many are willing to help place stakes around you to hold you up in the storm.