Things Fall Down: How I Learned To Embrace Fallen Trees

Life lessons from nature

When I moved to Pasco County, a rural tract north of Tampa, in 2018, I was coming from a 900-square-foot apartment in urban Fort Lauderdale. At the time, I was enamored by the property’s abundance of large, aged hardwood trees. They were everywhere, and they were beautiful. They provided ample protection from the brutal Florida sun. The trees were peaceful, and I loved to sit on my porch and gaze at them. I was so naive.

It didn’t take long for me to learn a hard lesson. Trees fall down. Everyone knows that. But coming from an urban living environment, you never really saw trees on their side except for after a powerful storm, like a hurricane. The carefully manicured trees lining my apartment parking lot or the ones dotting the median of the turnpike never fell over. While I knew that trees falling over was a possibility, I never thought it was likely to happen. Trees are strong. They can live for decades or even centuries. I was so naive.

Trees fall down often. I have had a tree fall down once a year since I moved in. Sometimes twice a year. The sound of a tree falling down is frightening. It is loud, and it causes the ground to shake. It is unmistakable. Now, every time I hear that sound, I groan and shuffle outside to see what the damage is. These trees have crushed fences, blocked my driveway, and obscured my view. My beautiful trees don’t look nice lying on the ground. And chopping them up is a lot of work. (And paying someone else to do it is prohibitively expensive.) Whenever a tree falls, it represents an ugly mess and requires a lot of grueling effort.

After our most recent tree fell, a large oak, I texted my wife and said that I hated it here. I wanted to move. I couldn’t do this anymore. Looking at the hulking carcass of yet another tree sitting on yet another fence sapped my strength and my will. It made me hate the place that I had grown to love.

That is when my perspective changed.

Trees fall down. It is a part of life. They might look ugly at first, and they might not be as pretty as a standing tree, but a fallen tree has its own unique appearance and beauty. If I let every fallen tree, every imperfection, every uncontrollable motion of nature ruin…