battle

Just beyond the well cared for shrubs and such of the doctor’s office parking lot – in which I waited for the Spice – was a whole other world. This was an untended strip of land betwixt and between several commercial plots. This area was a war zone of epic proportions, albeit the actions were very slow moving – or more accurately, slow growing – and it seemed that none save I noticed the desperate struggle.

Many species of trees and plants were involved in the conflict – types of coniferous, evergreen and deciduous growths were in the competition. My main focus was the four large trees in front of my vehicle. Three of which were of the same species and the other was a pecan – seen so because of the remaining nut hulls on the limbs after the drop of the trees nutty produce.

These trees were being set upon or attached to by at least three kinds of vines. One of these had attached itself to the bark and was probably more of a threat to people than to the trees – this since I took it to be poison ivy. Another type of vine was a briar, which had grown its way nearly to the top of all the trees and was competing with the trees for sunlight.

The third and most ominous of the vines was wisteria – identified by the legumes still attached. Wisteria is a deadly beauty because the flowers are beautiful but left to its own devices it will eventually grow to the top of the tree and choke – or shade – out the sunlight necessary for the life of the tree. This truth was shown because one of the trees was already dead with most of its limbs rotted and fallen.

The irony was that the dead limbs couldn’t even fall to the ground because they were so tangled in the vine growths. But this is the way God made these natural formations – only the strongest survive. I am always amazed at the way God created this natural world to continue no matter what we humans do. I’m also awed by the way He loves us and made a way that we could be saved from ourselves – and our wrong doings. ec