Mourning

We came across this felled tree while hiking near Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. There are some people who could read the story of this tree’s life that is written in the now exposed rings.  Years of drought, years of bounty, burrowing insects, perhaps some disease … it is all there for those who know the language.  What I saw was a tree mourning its life, with tears of sap running down its woody flesh. ❧