9/16/2005 the forest for the trees

Sometimes when we are right in the middle of things it is hard to see. The forest for the trees sort of thing. It can be almost impossible to chart our way if we cannot see the way out of the forest if we are focused on the trees. That said, it is hard to see the general lay of the land if we only look at the trees. Sure, we are intimately familiar with the trees, the texture of the bark, the shape of the leaf or needle, the smell of the loam.

We miss the underbrush when we focus on the trees. The delicate ferns, the sweet huckleberry, the various mosses. We miss the rock formations, the root patterns, the mushrooms, the streams. We miss the bird songs and the way the light filters through the tops of the trees. We are only focused on the trees. We miss the smells, the cool touch of breeze on our skin, the delicate chill of glacier fed winds when we only focus on the trees.

I think plateaus give us a chance to see all these other things. I am trying to view my slow progress this way. It is giving me a chance to savor the small changes that I might otherwise miss in my pell-mell rush to a thinner me.