Be as a bird perched on a frail branch
that she feels bending beneath her,still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings.
Victor Hugo
We had a ginormous tree branch snap in half in the night.
I know that poor Jeff saw that mass of green outside our window and probably was depressed by the idea of getting that mess cleaned up. In the midst of a heat wave.
I saw that branch and was immeasurably happy. For three reasons:
- The angle of the snap meant that the branch missed breaking through the roof of Cassidy’s bedroom… by inches.
- It also missed the power line. That would have bit the big one.
- The branch did fall squarely on our birdhouse, but Jeff saw the house wrens fledging last weekend. So they should all be safe, thank goodness.
Things happen and we have no control over them… but we have every bit of power over how we perceive them. When I look back on my life, there is a very definite sense of before, and after, and that line is drawn by the moment that I really took that statement to heart.
If a tree falls in your front yard and no one is there to be unhappy about it… is it really such a big deal?
Well.
Maybe.
If you’re the one trying to bring it down with a lasso.
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