While on a bike ride around the new Whangarei Town Basin loop track I spied this tree trunk behind a wire fence. Despite the fact that the tree had been well and truly chain sawed down; there in the trunk of the tree new life was doing its best to grow.
It made me reflect on the tenacity of life, be it the heart of a heart attack patient being flown by emergency helicopter to Auckland hospital (i.e. Moi) struggling to pump life sustaining oxygenated blood, or the fine crop of barnacles and weed that grow on the bottom of Mariners hull every year despite two coats of vicious, nasty poisonous anti-fouling paint.
Life is tenacious. Life hangs on. If you sail around the Northland coast or Banks Peninsula as I used to do with my old Dad in those golden days of long ago you will see land that has been farmed within an inch of its life, but here and there, there are deep ravines and little valleys so steep no sheep nor cow nor grass seed sowing man can go. There you will see little pockets of the old life, the indigenous natural life clinging to rock faces, cliffs and gullies. Vibrant tenacious life showing a brave green face to the world.
I thought of all this as I looked at new life sprouting from this old tree trunk amongst piles of concrete in an industrial wasteland.
Good on ya tree - Welcome to the hanging onto life club. If I happen to ride past without waving or winking or smiling don't be offended. I know you are there, and I feel strangely consoled by your presence.
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