A Place to Look

Time out of doors in December is very welcome. It’s a very interior month, the weather is usually lousy and Christmas-based socialising tends to happen in the warm and dry. So whenever I can, I pull on boots and a coat and get outside for a welcome taste of fresh air.

It’s a time to look harder. Birds have migrated to warmer places (so lucky) and other animals are hibernating. The leaves have fallen. The lush undergrowth of summer has collapsed and is rotting away. So it’s all about shapes, silhouettes, forms. I will wander through the woodland, letting my eyes play side to side, up and down. What appears to be a camp is revealed as the top of a tree that has fallen and is now upside down. Trees are all different. Some are healthy and robust. Others bend and creak if you push them, the pensioners of the woodland, upright for now but not for much longer.

Then I see this tree, revealing its secrets.

The roots of a tree extend away from the trunk as wide as the crown. They also extend deep into the earth, stabilising and nurturing. These foundations are usually completely hidden, but here for some reason, the root network of the tree was clearly visible at ground level. The roots were proud of the earth and were even highlighted by a coating of moss. This is a glimpse into a normally hidden subterranean world. Just a glimpse because most of the roots lie deep underground. But enough to hint at the reality of, as above, so below. A tree reaches up into the sky and down into the earth, its networks of branches and roots mirror one another and yet usually are hidden from each other. In this woodland, the veil slipped a little and roots ventured above the surface. I marvelled at their daring. December handed me a gift.