This fern is growing on a fallen tree trunk that is covered in moss. This piece of tree has been down for some time and is no longer growing as it started out to but it has become the host home for numerous other plants and probably many small creatures too.
If trees think then I wonder if this one felt disappointment as it fell. I wonder if he felt helpless lying on the ground looking up at other trees growing as he had intended to and reaching for the light as he lay there in the dark. But as he lay, unable to do anything about his fortune, I wonder if there was consolation in the new growth that took root in his fallen body and the tiny lives that moved in to make him their new home. I’m not sure that trees think or feel, but if they do I imagine it might have gone something like that.
If you find yourself in a forest look for the small, surprising things growing in unusual places.
So, to pray…
May we find peace in the places where we find ourselves and recognize life and where it happening. May we learn to be still and may Your life grow in, around and through us. Amen.