by Michael Reeves
I grew up in eastern New Mexico, where trees are scarce. One morning after a particularly windy night, we awoke to find that our apricot and big weeping willow tree had both fallen. The neighbor across the street had a large tree down in his yard, as well. It turns out that a tornado had come through, apparently passing over high enough to not interfere with powerlines or houses. The twister did not, however, rise high enough to avoid the trees. Instead, it toppled them over, bringing up their roots and the ground around them.
I had never seen trees tipped over like this, and was fascinated with the expansive network of large roots that feed and enable the towering plants to stay upright. Both trees were lost and in an effort to save the yard, someone came and cut them up and flattened out the ground again. The yard seemed empty to me without the shade or obstacles to run and play around. The vacancy left by the absent trees allowed our last remaining tree, a mulberry, to thrive, growing much larger than it would have been able to otherwise. Both the weeping willow and the apricot tree had been sickly, neither producing much in way of shade of fruit, and probably would have been cut down eventually. The mulberry, however, stands to this day, its large branches and leaves providing more shade for the yard than the other two combined ever did.
Kids often come to the Ranch with a limited network that doesn’t nourish them. Their stunted support systems leave them susceptible to being toppled by forces much weaker than a tornado. As they mature and begin to eliminate the negative influences, giving the positive ones adequate space to develop, we see our residents flourish in ways previously thought impossible. No tree can survive without an extensive healthy network of roots in place to nourish, support and protect it. People require the same for growth and success. Thank you for being part of the network that nourishes, supports and protects our residents. Thank you for helping make their growth possible.
