Thanks to family roots, I’ve spent time each summer on the shore of Lake Huron. Ash trees up there, whether healthy or stressed, have been dying off due to a forest pest named the Emerald Ash borer.  One of the happy outcomes of that very unhappy development is that more of us are talking – and learning – about trees.

I recently learned that trees have two separate structures in them. There is the visible and original load bearing structure that grows into roots and stems and eventually leaves and branches and trunk. Less obviously, that young structure is kept moving by wind, which brings challenge and stress and leads to small cracks in the tree’s original structure. In response, and into those gaps, the tree grows “stress wood”; a secondary structure which then directs and contorts its tree for maximal sunlight, water, and resources. The tree is still itself; but its original material is strengthened and organized more strategically.

Trees take what comes at them externally, and make internal adjustments to give themselves the very best chance of surviving and thriving.