The Sitka Spruce

I discovered at some point that the Sitka Spruce forests, which are seen over much of Scotland, are not native, nor very natural. They are just poor quality wood farms, grown as an easy investment by landowners. The trees are grown close together, the soil becomes poorer over time, and the wildlife they attract is limited. I have grown to think of them disdainfully.

But a tree is still a tree. And the Sitka Spruce doesn’t choose where it is planted. I was walking through my regular hill walk yesterday, which takes me through a wood that has a mixture of planted Sitka and other trees.

I stopped and looked for a while, in a darker part of the woods, at a group of these Sitka Trees. And they seemed beautiful.

And I’m learning slowly over time that the way I want things to be…from the way I play guitar, to the audience for my music, to stuff that actually WORKS, to, um, world peace….is one thing. And the way they are is another.

And before I can ever move forward to something better, I have to be able to understand, and find beauty, in things as they are now.

Yes, I’m in zen mode today. That’s just the way things are now.