Notice how you can see distant treetrunks-- because (except for the person sitting on the log)
there is no clutter!
In the Chicago area, we are blessed with somebody’s foresight decades ago – to set aside green areas now known as the Cook County Forest Preserves. These are acres and acres of green space scattered around this big county, that include picnic tables, fields, forests, trails, and ponds.
Nearby counties have followed suit, and most have their own Forest Preserves as well.
The villain in this happy picture is buckthorn. Buckthorn was brought to America from Europe in the 1800s because it made good hedges. It also thrived and became a problem because it out-competes native vegetation. Its leaves become green earliest in the spring, and create dense shade that native flowers and plants cannot tolerate.
Forest Preserves frequently tap volunteers to help remove these hardy pests, and follow up with controlled burns. These prescribed fires remove ground litter like dead leaves and branches that would otherwise accumulate to become fuel for an unplanned and uncontrolled fire.
It’s been exciting to see some amazing results. Walking through controlled burn areas, you can actually see between the trees without the clutter of invasive buckthorn. Only the litter is gone. The tree trunks haven’t even been scorched. In spring tiny and magnificent wild flowers actually keep growing because they have light. Harmful insects that live in Buckthorn are also gone.
So I got to thinking, buckthorn can be a metaphor for our lives. It’s something that isn’t native to us, that out-competes what is natural to us, by cutting off the light of God’s goodness.
What’s natural to mankind as the likeness of a universally present God, are qualities like patience, kindness, thoughtfulness, wisdom.
The buckthorn of life would be anger, hate, resentment, jealousy, impatience, self-importance. If indulged, these take over and snuff out our innate intelligence and caring.
Sometimes we realize what’s going on, and we voluntarily dig out the roots of the buckthorn that’s messing up our life view.
Other times, our Father-Mother starts a controlled burn that removes the clutter of rage and criticism – without harming us. We may resist the heat and the smoke, but it is so much easier to fulfill our purpose in this world when the buckthorn has been uprooted and the clutter burned.
That’s when we can look around and see how very beautiful life is. That's when we gain a better sense of our value and discover new opportunities to contribute to the infinite scheme of life.
Nearby counties have followed suit, and most have their own Forest Preserves as well.
The villain in this happy picture is buckthorn. Buckthorn was brought to America from Europe in the 1800s because it made good hedges. It also thrived and became a problem because it out-competes native vegetation. Its leaves become green earliest in the spring, and create dense shade that native flowers and plants cannot tolerate.
Forest Preserves frequently tap volunteers to help remove these hardy pests, and follow up with controlled burns. These prescribed fires remove ground litter like dead leaves and branches that would otherwise accumulate to become fuel for an unplanned and uncontrolled fire.
It’s been exciting to see some amazing results. Walking through controlled burn areas, you can actually see between the trees without the clutter of invasive buckthorn. Only the litter is gone. The tree trunks haven’t even been scorched. In spring tiny and magnificent wild flowers actually keep growing because they have light. Harmful insects that live in Buckthorn are also gone.
So I got to thinking, buckthorn can be a metaphor for our lives. It’s something that isn’t native to us, that out-competes what is natural to us, by cutting off the light of God’s goodness.
What’s natural to mankind as the likeness of a universally present God, are qualities like patience, kindness, thoughtfulness, wisdom.
The buckthorn of life would be anger, hate, resentment, jealousy, impatience, self-importance. If indulged, these take over and snuff out our innate intelligence and caring.
Sometimes we realize what’s going on, and we voluntarily dig out the roots of the buckthorn that’s messing up our life view.
Other times, our Father-Mother starts a controlled burn that removes the clutter of rage and criticism – without harming us. We may resist the heat and the smoke, but it is so much easier to fulfill our purpose in this world when the buckthorn has been uprooted and the clutter burned.
That’s when we can look around and see how very beautiful life is. That's when we gain a better sense of our value and discover new opportunities to contribute to the infinite scheme of life.
1 comment:
Thanks for highlighting the importance of prescribed fire.
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