It’s time for re-entry to regular life after our mini-vacay in the Great Smoky Mountains. It’s always the time for catching up on the routine of life. Catching up on laundry, picking work back up where it was left when I left, getting back to the mundane. As is always the case with “re-entry” I just hope I can hold on to a few more moments and a few life lessons that I learned on this trip. The big take-away is the awe I have developed for the resiliency of nature, the resiliency of life.
From the destruction of the evergreens by the woolly adelgid to the wildfires of 2016 and 2017 comes renewed beauty and life. In one stretch of mountain road, you could see the devastation but drive just a couple of miles more and back to beautiful. Many thanks should go to the forest conservation folks who are attempting to revive the forests, mainly the hemlocks, from those woolly adelgids. Whoever figured out that soap and water would destroy those pests is a winner in my book! And even when you are hiking through the areas of fire ravage, while the tree trunks are still scorched and smelling burnt, the majority of the tree tops are leafing out and the undergrowth of the forest floor is a brilliant green hue of new growth and life.
If that isn’t the truth of the Circle of Life, I don’t know what is. I take it as proof that we all can handle a lot of blows and damage from life, yet still persevere and stand strong.
Enough of my philosophical ramblings of the Smokys. Up next, more fun observations.