A tree in winter: Desolation in black and white.

The lonely tree in winter

I have been trying to find images to describe a feeling that I have had lately. The only thing that comes close is a memory I have of a bare tree standing alone in a field at the end of November, roughly around Thanksgiving weekend. The sky in Ohio is typically overcast, the ground is wet with soggy leaves on the ground and the temperature is hovering around 35 to 40 degrees. Not cold enough for snow, but still too cold to enjoy the outdoors. This mental image in my mind comes with a feeling of sorrow and desolation, a feeling of decaying death and solitude. Rather melancholy, yes?

This is how I feel now in this season of my life. Desolation in black and white. Just a few years ago, in the middle of Debbie’s seven-year battle with cancer, there was a brilliant sunset lighting up the breath-taking reds, browns and oranges of the turning leaves. Life was hard but it was so GOOD. Such beauty. Courage in the face of overwhelming odds. Nobility of spirit.

However, just as there is really only one such breath taking weekend near the middle to end of October, the brilliant fall season in our lives was gone far too quickly. But I was unprepared for November desolation!

I tried to find a photo on the internet that would capture my feelings. I tried googling “bare”, “soggy”, “cold”, “fall”, “black and white”, “lonely” and came up empty. Perhaps the closest I came was this photo (B=below), which still does not convey the hopeless cold desolation the image in my mind carries.

I think back to the many years of raising children and planting churches as the ‘summer’ of my life. In the words of the immortal Beatles,

♪ “Those were the days, my friend, we thought they would never end …”

When I reminisce about my early years of marriage, and the truly exciting spiritual discoveries we were making, as, what appeared to be a whole new world opened before us, it would seem to me to have been the exhilarating “Spring-time” of our lives. Babies, new life, new growth, love was in the air!

But now here I am standing before this old bare tree, at least in my memory, feeling alone and desolate. I hope the first snows hurry up, perhaps there will at least be an austere beauty in the winter.

There is a scene from the Lord of the Rings second film, “The Two Towers” which describes this feeling better than anything else I can think of. It is when Elrond is trying to convince Arwen to leave Middle Earth and he prophesies to her the end of her life after her love, Lord Aragon has died. 

I realize that this post was entirely dark. A good post should have a ray of light SOMEWHERE, right?  By now, you are all undoubtedly deppressed with me. Not necessarily a good outcome. So, I ask myself, is this it?

or is it possible that after a beautiful and quiet winter I might experience another Spring time of love and new life? After all, we all experience the changing of the seasons repeatedly, multiple times throughout our lives. Well ... I will let you know as soon as I find out .... stay tuned or tune back in, in a few months!