The tree -- jcarolek

In 2004 a huge tree fell across the path to my pond. The portion of the tree that actually lay in the path was the topmost portion. The tree, at least 100 feet tall, had actually been rooted on my neighbor's land. The portion of the tree that lay across the path was at least 20 feet tall as it WAS the top of the tree. I looked at this fallen tree and wondered how I was going to clear the way so that I could, once again, use my comfortable and familiar path to get to the pond.

I walked to the roots of the fallen tree and climbed up to walk the length of the tree, to get a feel for what I was dealing with. And I knew, without a doubt, this was not something I could tackle alone. And I had nobody capable of helping me, at the moment, so I did the only thing I could think of. I worked myself another, not so lovely, path through my woods to the pond. And I let the tree lie where it had fallen.

One day, a couple of weeks after it fell, a friend wanted to go fishing in our pond. He brought his little jon boat over and he and I carried the boat down the path, through my detour path and to the pond....our friend was less than impressed with my makeshift path and he offered to come back and help me get the fallen tree out of the good path, thereby allowing him to drive down to the water....I accepted his offer and a couple of days later, he showed up with two chain saws. I countered with two of my own, and we set about the task.

It took us a couple of hours, but, in the end, we had essentially cut a path through the fallen tree. The trunk of the tree still lay to the right of the path and the very topmost branches of the tree lay to the left of the path...but the path was, once again, traversable.

Over the past four years, that fallen tree has served as a happy habitat to many of nature's creatures, and has served as a jungle gym of sorts to my outdoor pets. I have no longer been bothered by the overwhelming monstrosity that would have cut off my access to happy fishing in the pond.

It occurs to me that we are often presented rather large, seemingly unsurmountable obstacles to getting where we want to go. Sometimes we have to simply make a detour for a while, until those with the power decide to remove the obstacle. Sometimes we have to work with others to help cut a path through that obstacle. But in any case, we need to make certain we don't lose track of the goal...the intended purpose...my path through my woods leads to my pond, and peaceful fishing.

As I see that big eBay tree preparing to fall across my familiar path, I am looking for ways to detour, even as I try to help save that tree from completely cutting off my access to my intended goal of successful selling. I hope you will also be working to help clear that path.

The cleared path, nearly four years later: