The Lodgepole Pine

Reprinted fromToday's Gift.

Withdrawal is a preparation for emergence. --Nor Hall

A man lost his family in a car accident and wanted to be alone for a while, but he worried whether he was doing the right thing. Then one day a friend told him that when pine cones fall off the lodgepole pine trees, they are sealed shut so the seeds inside can't get out. The pine cones lie on the forest floor--sometimes for decades--until a forest fire sweeps through. Heat from the fire melts the seal and the seeds fall out and finally grow, and that's why the lodgepole pine is called a "fire-origin species." The man felt good about himself when he heard the story. "Fire-origin species" is a good name for people who've been burned by life and find new growth as a result.