After hiking in North Carolina with my family, I snapped the picture below and collected these thoughts.
Enjoy!
-Toby
***
Went to the top of Waterrock Knob.
I noticed the trees.
The leaves were all gone.
~~~
Was that because of the cold?
No, in the South Pole pines grow.
~~~
Was it the rocky trail?
Surely anything grown there is likely to fail.
~~~
Couldn’t be that.
This pathway housed life.
Like wild flowers,
A beetle,
And trickling water turned to ice.
~~~
But these trees had no leaves,
I think I know why.
~~~
Because this path leads so high in the sky.
I figured it out!
But just when I thought I was smart as a whip,
I remembered seeing Redwoods.
No, the altitude wasn’t it.
~~~
Maybe bears came and ate up all the leaves?
No way!
Feasting near people is no place grizzlies want to be.
~~~
I’m not sure, I should stop guessing,
Maybe, just maybe, no leaves is one of Mother Nature’s lessons.
~~~
Instead of noticing what’s wrong,
Enjoy all that’s right.
~~~
Never curse the winds,
That helps fly the kite.
~~~
Instead.
~~~
Love the blue in the sky,
The trail’s mud on your shoes.
~~~
And never.
Please, never.
Let the leafless tree obscure the wonderful view.
