Broken

An ice storm last Sunday took down many tree limbs on our property, one fell on the power line coming to our house. We have had no electricity for six days. Fortunately we have two wood burning stoves and a good supply of fire wood. A generator is keeping our refrigerator running and the well pump going when we need running water. The whole family was here for Christmas. We cooked our meals on the wood stove and dined by the light of oil lamps and candles. 

There is a tree in my yard, I am not sure what kind, but it shades our picnic table and one of my perennial flower beds. Over the years it has lost a branch here and there due to wind and age. With each fresh wound I wonder will she survive and continue to grow? Will this be the final assault that will end her life and force us to chop her down and add her pieces to the woodpile? So far she has rebounded every time, healing over and pushing out new buds each spring. Ice has covered the branches for the last six days. The added weight of all this ice has caused massive damage, taking down several large limbs. I wonder, will she come through this unprecedented attack? Or is she irreparably broken? I can see the broken branches as I lay in bed looking out my window, wondering, will I survive the repeated blows to my heart and soul?

On Christmas morning my six year old grandson came and snuggled in bed with me at four a.m., wondering if Santa had been here yet. I convinced him that it was much too early to go downstairs and look so he went back to sleep. My three year old granddaughter woke me up at 8:00 by shining a flashlight in my face and saying "Mamaw, Santa was here and I saw him fly away!" It is those precious moments that give me the courage to keep putting one foot in front of the other, to slap a bandage on the newest wound and wait for spring.