This past weekend, my husband and I took a stroll in the Narbeck Wetland Sanctuary, a little oasis of nature directly across a busy street from the huge factory where he used to work.  We came upon a tree that had fallen over completely, its base and roots perpendicular to the ground.

In the lower left of the photo you can see the round rootball of the fallen tree, and its trunk lying on the ground.  But what you can also see are new tiny trunks growing straight up from that fallen tree’s root ball.  Nature never lets anything go to waste, and eventually there will be a little stand of trees where the larger tree used to be.  And there’s already our ubiquitous moss growing on the fallen trunk of the tree.  It’s a riot of new life, growing right out of the dead tree.

A little farther down the path, we saw another fallen tree.  This one was much bigger, and lying in a pond.

This was a bigger tree to start with, and it’s already far along in decomposition.  But again, new plants live on that old log, and eventually it will completely be turned into new trees.  New life springs from death, before our very eyes.