A Tree Falls in the Forest

Sitting here on the cabin porch,
all of a sudden in the distance,
a loud crack,
a whoosh,
and a monumental thud.
Then a reverential silence.

A great giant has fallen.

A single seedling
out of thousands
by strength and luck,
dared to grow-
ascending,
adapting,
enduring,
a home for many for decades.

Then slowly
declining,
succumbing,
until one day,
the weight of death
is too heavy
and the earth is shaken
by its descent.

But not before
hundreds of seedlings
have emerged
around it.

Now begins
another stage of being.
The tree becomes a home
of a different sort.
Insects and fungi
facilitate its decay
until it, too,
becomes the earth,
nourishing the future.

What an honor
to witness,
if only by sound,
this moment of transition,
to wonder about
the natural rhythms
of endings and beginnings,
and to ponder
my place in it.

By Maria Brady-Smith
Photo by Mike Smith