R is for Remember

Sorry I'm dragging this one on so much. The experience was really life changing and not in a positive way.

Waking up on Friday, we gave thanks that yet another tree hadn't fallen to add to our misery and then opened our bedroom window to peek at the damage. The tree!! Boy was it a large one!! This one was spread all over the backyard.

On further inspection it looked like a tree in our neighbor's yard had fallen on another tree in his yard and both had fallen into our backyard. And along the way they had managed to crash a sugarplum tree in our yard and take it with them. Three trees ..trouble comes in threes I guess. 

Yet another neighbor of ours came in on Friday and helped us board up both the windows very securely, and managed to  cut away part of the tree so we could access the windows from outside. Power came back by afternoon and we were warm and almost close to normal once again. The thaw was pretty steady after that and by Saturday we were really really back to our lives the way it had been seven days ago.

Insurance should take care of most of the expenses and overall we came away much less affected than a lot of people we know. My Tai chi teacher had a tree go through her roof and will probably have to demolish and rebuild her house, six to eight months work. All their possessions stuck there and damaged probably by the elements of nature.

And Portland overall has been pummeled. Numerous trees down, quite a few on houses, some fatalities and in general, the fury of nature has left us massive reminders. The clean up is going to take time. We still have the darn tree staring at us and today might be the day it might get cleaned up. The windows are going to take much longer. They are usually ordered on demand and take time. So we are going to be left with scars of this storm for quite some time. 

But they also serve as lessons. Valuable ones. Like don’t mess around with nature. You never win.The imagery that came to mind was that of a tigress lazing around with her cub who keeps being annoying, nibbling her ear, grabbing her tail or in general being a pest. The mother puts up with this for a while and when her patience is finally exhausted, she lets out a mighty roar that literally peels the pants off the cub, who cowers at her feet, ears flattened, eyes beseeching.

Nature is our mother. We all came from her and she never ceases being the mother. We do not ever outgrow nature. We don’t go off and become independent . We will never hit a point where we don't need her. She is the one who keeps us alive. Feeding us, clothing us, sustaining us, giving us shelter.  All the supposed advancements that men have achieved? Peanuts compared to what she has gives and continue to give us. And when we are pared down to our basics, we are just muscle and bone with skin over it and all that is needed to sustain us is within nature.

Lose power and you find the value of fire. Lose power and you find the value of warmth. Walk in the dark and learn the value of light. Worry about your refrigerator going off and learn the value of fresh food. Frozen water pipes teach us the value of fresh water. After all, what we need to survive is food, shelter and clothing( optional no??). Nature has it,all of it.  Maybe in an unrefined form but it is all there.

When humans decided to 'tame' nature to their whims, nature waited and watched patiently. Centuries of 'advancement ' which included defiling nature just for our benefit.  Forests decimated, waterways rerouted, artificial materials dumped into oceans and released into the atmosphere. She waited and watched. 

Our neighborhood used to be a Christmas tree farm or some such thing. It was cleared away to build houses. A few trees were left behind I guess. Large firs with fibrous roots tend to be clumped together  and the roots intertwine underground and hold them all together in a rock solid bond. But indiscriminate chopping and leaving lone trees or trees farther apart, so the house can be built just so, or for nothing other than aesthetic purposes, backfired this time. Bending nature to our will for selfish purposes when nature has her own reasoning for things never is a good idea. We've learnt that firsthand. Painful lesson this. 

So it all depends on how much we will pay heed to nature. We can always start small. Have sustainable practices at home like reducing the use of plastic. Recycling as much as possible. Reducing food waste. Composting.Reusing things as much as possible. Using water sensibly. Planting native species in the garden. Small baby steps, but will definitely count when enough people do it.

Respect nature and most important of all, remember. Remember how it feels to have nature take revenge on you for all the abuse heaped on her. You will not make it, unless you heed her not so gentle reminders.