Working alone on the deer paths managing a woodland provides plenty of thinking time. I made my rounds last week checking for storm damage & reflected I had started managing the site a decade ago. I’d achieved a lot of ambitions & didn’t have anything pressing on the horizon. As Louie Simmons said in one of his podcasts I was living in my own shadow. Illness crept up on me & I had to change a lot of things. Ambitions suddenly grew & doors I had thought were previously closed reopened.
In the woods nature continues regardless. These woods are old & many trees are dying. New ones are coming into the gaps they leave. I have become attuned to the locality. Working outdoors all year round gives an appreciation of the challenges & gifts of each season. Winter can be stark. The Romans, writing about their invasion of the UK lamented the bleak wet conditions. Grey skies, drizzle, hail, snow, frost, fog. The damp clinging heavily in the air can be particularly oppressive.
Winter sunshine is to be savoured. It lights up the drab leaves & highlights autumnal survivors. New animal trails stand out like neon lights. The resident deer seem happy for me to get close, even when dragging the heavy roller or noisy wheelbarrow around – so long as I don’t stare at them directly. The bark shed from overhanging branches shout out to me as loudly as the breaking of an overhead bough. The first green shoots of the bluebells crunch through the soil faster than the raindrops are falling or so I imagine. I stood silent in the woods & felt time shifting & spinning. I’ve seen 51 winters now. They’ve gone quickly & seem to be speeding up.
Progress in strength training & endurance sports is a lot like invasive fungi – a lot of growth goes unseen until it bursts out of the host. Some of the youngsters I wrestled last week are filling out their strength, their techniques starting to become natural expressions. It seems to have happened in a finger click. I take delight in progress. Seeing an ambition achieved through persistence is the gold of life.
In the woods strong straight trees get damaged by lightning strikes & big storms. Prevailing winds deform the exposed permanently, combed from the south west into ugly shapes. Roots get undermined by animals and the weak get pushed over. Sometimes they are propped up by strong neighbours, other times they bring them down too – it is the way of things. We too will not escape circumstance, nor prevent the inevitable.
To grow needs ambition. Something to strive & fight for. Progression can be found & earned in almost every activity. The impatient hope of youth may stall at the first setback. Panic can set in. The older guys must whisper in their ears before the calamity & again when it has struck. There is more work to be done, progress and growth will come.
Bluebell shoots pierce upwards amid the established trees swaying in the wind with their own whispers. Make the most of the sunshine amid the grey skies of winter. Spring is on the way & then summer. Make your plans.
See you down the road.
Thanks,
Dan
