THEM CHANGES

Everywhere I look I see change. The most evident change that I have seen lately is at Memorial Park. Last year when we had the drought, many trees died in the park. At first it just seemed like a few yet the longer the drought went, the more trees turned brown. When the drought was over, the damage was inconceivable.

The Houston Chronicle came out with an article that said they estimated they were going to loose up to 80% of the trees in the park. Being a native Houstonian, that was unimaginable. I have been going to this park on and off my whole life. I could not imagine the change they were talking about. What is the park going to look like? Will it be better will it be worse?

My girlfriend and I walk regularly at the park and have witnessed change in motion since last summer. The machinery moved in and they were taking down trees that are older than me and it was so weird, so disorienting, and so different…….change was happening.

This is the ugly side to change. There are pools of water where trees were because there are no trees to drink the water any more. There are piles of sawdust where stump grinders leveled what was left of trees. The whole landscape is changing and I can see freeways where I once could only hear them. It is ugly at the park now and there are tons more trees that are still coming down. They have just been busy getting the ones that could fall on people or cars.

The park mirrors my life and some of my closest friends who are going through change. It has to get ugly sometimes to create new space for change and growth. This is the stage where a lot of us give up and go back to old ways because we don’t like ugly. Yet I know if I hold on and keep moving through the changes, opportunities like new tree growth will start to show. Once that happens then I can practice nurturing these seedlings and confirming to myself when I loose faith in change that there is another side and on that side will be new growth and wonder. I can’t wait.