Monday, August 10, 2009

The resiliency of the green field

Before I learned the science behind it, I was fascinated with the fact that after a terrible grass fire a field would grow back twice as green as it was before. I would notice this the most on the ride to Wichita Falls, Texas from Oklahoma. There was always some small grass fire ravaging the crop fields or the grassy plains. Looking at it, it would appear that the field was quite dead. Smoke would be rising from the ground, ashes would be blowing this way and that, and absolutely every square inch would be blackened from the flames.

Yet, after a few weeks, we would drive by the exact same spot and that field would be the greenest one of them all. The grass would grow thicker, the color would be more vibrant, and it would come back twice as strong. This is the resiliency of the green field.

Though it may be burnt and charred to the ground, there's something positive to be found in the fire that sweeps across the plain. There's something in that all-engulfing flame that paves the way for something new and stronger to take place.

In times where it seems that we are losing everything to the fire, that thing which takes away everything and burns it down to its lowest point, we need only have the resiliency of the green field. The ability to become twice the person we were before, after everything in life seems to have been burned away.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah it's weird isn't it? Up here you see a lot of farmers actually burning their fields at certain times of year for this very reason. I sort of enjoy the smoldering smell in the air! Is this odd? Bah!

YayaOrchid said...

You've made an excellent point. And life is full of those grass fires.

GlorV1 said...

How profound that last paragraph. Yes if we could only have the resiliency of that fire to become as you say:

"The ability to become twice the person we were before after everything in life seems to have been burned away."

That definitely is food for thought. Thanks a lot for this post.

Sandy said...

Wow! I had no idea that such profound lessons could be learned from such seemingly insignificant things like grass. Thank you JP.
Keep posting great stuff.
Cheers!

Valerie said...

very insightful Juan...

all the organisms in that habitat have evolved to deal with the hardship, so must we.

Chris Gooch said...

A great post! Sometimes it is indeed possible to rise up like a phoneix from the flames.

Juan Pablo said...

Thanks guys!!

I kind of got a random inspiration... so the wording and flow of this post is very, very off.. but I hope the gist of it resonated anyway. :) Thanks again for your comments!

Robin said...

I love a good metaphor.

Juan Pablo said...

Haha metaphor is my best friend!

Mr. Charleston said...

Grass fire renewal is actually essential to life. It's the forest fires you have to look out for.