Nostalgia

I added lots of new posts and I'll be blogging again now that I'm settling in. Use the labels tab on the left to see all my posts sorted by subject, regardless of date. I want this to be a source for good spiritual writing but also a reflection and expression of my soul. I'll start recording my own thoughts more as I feel more comfortable with that. You've meant something to me at one point if I've shared this with you and I hope you get something from it.

   Easing deeper into the woods, I notice that some trees are joined together as pairs. One of the partners is usually larger than the other, and most have grown from a fallen tree trunk or stump, of which only a rotted hulk remains. Surprisingly, many of the pairs are mixed. The first of these I find is a fluted hemlock standing with a smooth-trunked spruce. The two lean slightly apart, but near the ground they merge, so that each has shaped itself into the other. The most remarkable thing is their roots, an intertwined mass of living tree flesh that grows over a decayed log like a tangle of fingers clutching the dark earth below. In some pairs, the root masses rise five or six feet above the ground before coalescing into mated trunks.    These coupled trees reach into the same soil and share its nurturing, share the same rains, brace themselves against the same shuddering gusts, feel the same summer warmth and winter cold, flourish in the same moments of ...

   My fears about the boat subside as the night passes. Wind, sea, and rain become a voice of pure wildness, expression of the enormous, powerful thing that was born far out over the ocean, grew and intensified, and now sprawls up against the coast. Someday a storm like this might catch me on the water and carry me away, but I love it all the same. What better way to vanish than into the dark flailing breath of a north Pacific storm?    I float toward sleep, drawn away from the fears in my mind by the comforting tempest outside. The great storm contains me. - Richard Nelson, "The Island Within"