Monday, January 28, 2008

The Season of Falling Trees

It's been raining here in SoCal. Sometimes we go years without real precipitation. It's a nice change. There's an interesting thing that happens here, a few weeks after the rain. The Devil Winds from the Eastern Desert kick up and blow out to sea. It makes the trees commit suicide. You drive out in the morning and see huge branches broken off from the trunks. Whole trees will be blown over, sometimes rows of them down across thoroughfares or crushing someones garage, roots now pointing to the sky, big hole where they used to be. Most people agree that this is caused by the rains softening the ground, allowing the wind to loosen and detach the root systems and no doubt this is a factor.

The primary reason this happens is something else, something people don't think about. When the rains come, the trees greedily suck up the water and nutrients. They pump these up to the top of the tree where all the foliage is and photosynthesis is going on. Water weighs a lot. The trees become top heavy. When the wind hits these poor unbalanced trees, there is no question what is going to happen.

Sometimes our lives can be like the trees in Southern California. Better ask yourself. Do you need to prune your life back a little, before the Devil Winds start to blow? The season of falling trees is coming, baby!

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