Thursday, August 20, 2009

Falling Trees Everywhere I Look

Some of us in the NY tri-state area experienced a severe thunderstorm on Tuesday night, nearly 100 trees were felled in Central Park and hundreds were damaged. "It was the most severe destruction the park's trees had sustained in decades," said officials from the Department of Parks.... Beautiful, century-old trees were damaged or destroyed such as American elms, horse chestnuts, yellow buttonwoods and others." People can get very attached to certain trees. One man was quoted as saying that, "If you love trees, as we do, it's emotionally upsetting. You have personal relationships with certain trees and now they are gone." "The fast moving storm was described as  microburst or downburst with straight-line winds gusting at 70 miles per hour. It was severe is some parts of the city, unnoticed in others."
Where I live, I noticed it. First of all, I am a night person, which means I like to stay up late and read, write, blog or read blogs, pray and watch the news. (Sometimes I shop too, which is great being able to shop, right from home!)  I like the night, it's quiet and peaceful and so when the storm passed through the area where I live, I heard it. Luckily, it wasn't as violent as other parts of New York. And yet what I didn't know on Tuesday evening was a tree was damaged on our property and would later fall, blocking the street in front of our house.
Nature is so unpredictable like most of life. Severe storms can cause havoc and yet nature can also be beautiful, peaceful and calming for the soul. 
NJA