New Year's Day

[Pony]

....i know it's a little past New Year's day, but thought i'd post this i wrote some years ago.


NEW YEAR's DAY
by
Anthony Rain Starez

I watched that tree stand tall for years and collect the grey Spanish moss that is so prevalent in the deep south. Ugly and lifeless the tree was, no leaves adorned the brittle branches that only reached a foot or two beyond the trunk.

Although most trees were not exempt from the smothering moss that acts like small leeches sucking the very life from the tree, this thin tree seemed to have much more than its share of the clingy fungus. It had accumulated in great thick quantities, hugging the tree tightly as if the other trees would have nothing to do with it.

Why it had attracted so much moss, I never knew...but in the mornings as I would leave for my job I'd sometimes stare and wonder why mother nature had chosen it from all the others to burden with such a stifling blanket. There were times in my life that I felt isolated and weighed down much like that old tree, carrying more than my share of heavy moss around and feeling it creep around my neck to suffocate my enthusiasm.

Guess we had something in common, that tree and I. For years I waited for that tree to tumble over. In all logic, that tree should have succumbed to the adversity long ago.

Each Summer when the violent storms would come pushing the tree closer to its demise with powerful winds and drenching rains that soaked the moss to a sickly green color, that tree would continue its rebellious stand.

Sometimes I'd emerge from the shelter of my home after the storms and smile. There it was, looking terrible, yet defying the odds and refusing to go down. In subtle ways that tree would inspire me to handle my trials and challenges that had collected on me like wet moss.

Oh, everybody has their own moss to carry, some fall under the pressure easier than others. Some make it look easy, some just do it.....I like to think that performing with grace is the only damn thing I'm good at, never really letting people see the moss that sometimes hangs on my spirit trying so hard to choke out my passion.

But that tree....with all the fight in it to stand could not be ignored, that's probably why I smiled again when I left the house New Year's Eve morning for work. The night before we'd had our first Winter storm to move through, and move through it did with a terrific vengeance; its anger woke me in the middle of the night, and made my sleep even deeper, never imagining the fierce battle that tree was engaged in to remain standing.

So many times that tree had delighted me by remaining vertical after such frightful weather, but this day before a new year began it would stand no more. The forces of nature had brought it down finally; everything must fall eventually, I think. We put up our best defenses and win most of the battles, but we must be ready to fall....there is no failure in falling, just in not trying to fight it.


How appropriate I found it that the tree had chosen the last day of the year to surrender. I salute that tree and its strength of will, knowing that, like the tree, I will surely fall one day...my hope is to fall with dignity...knowing I carried the moss in my life with character. Life has to do with how you stand, not how you fall.