Coming Back from the Ashes
Mother Nature’s Moment
by ISA Certified Arborist: Lesley Bruce Smith
Photo by Lesley Bruce Smith
As many of you know, I have just recently passed the one year mark of my breast cancer diagnosis. I am happy to report that although the work is as yet unfinished, all my one year scans are clean and clear. This is good news and worth celebrating. Yahoo!
At the beginning of this journey I just kept thinking I wanted to “get back to normal”. Now I realize that there is no going back, only forward. I have learned, yet again, that life is always on a relentless pace forward, whether we like it or not. The question is, I knew how to do my past, but the past is gone and the path of the future is as always, unknown. It is a place of trust, it is a wilderness of uncertainty. Yet, I have learned that in the journey forward, I can be certain of many things that I was not certain of before. I am certain of the love and support of so many. I am certain of the strength of our staff, who have so competently stood in the gaps during our necessary absences over the last year. I am certain that learning has occurred and that I am now a member of a group of people I never wanted to join, cancer survivors. I am certain that life goes on, even when it feels like it won’t or never could.
I am certain of the gratitude I feel towards all reading this newsletter and that this is going to be a great spring full of life and promise. I am certain that the lessons learned in cancer, that embracing the BOTH/AND instead of the EITHER/OR, is a great lesson for all of life. I am certain that our diets and lifestyles have a big influence on our health. I am certain that trees, like humans, survive to grow again. I am back, but I am in a forward posture. I am certainly thankful.