The Eagle Tree

by Ned Hayes

The majority of who I really am is buried underneath the surface, and no one sees it.

I am always connected to the deep river of knowledge, my taproot sliding right into the river’s main spring. And these trees were trying to determine who I was from the little bit of me that they could see sticking up above the soil. It hardly seemed fair that they could judge all that I am from the little bit that they could see interacting with other people, because that’s the smallest part of who I am.

also see a theological connection. I see a very clear connection between the study of nature and the study of God. Nature is God’s vast palette, and through it I believe that we can see fingerprints of grace everywhere we look.”

“God’s power shines through everything we see, but it is no more evident than when we see the shining steadfastness of a tree that is hundreds of years old. I look up at the great arching branches of a tree like the Eagle Tree, found in the old-growth LBA Woods, and I think that is what it feels like to be embraced by the everlasting.”

I wanted them to see the vast cycle of time, and the way the tree worked so hard to grow, and the way it stayed alive for all those centuries, and the way it embraced the forest floor in the end. I wanted them to see the glory and the pain. I wanted them to see everything.