According to the Department of Natural Resources:
As the beechnut or American beech tree gets ready for winter, its leaves turn a brownish russet color and the three-sided nuts it produces are borne in prickly burs. Because the nut is small and covered with a thin, leathery shell, sometimes people don’t take the effort to harvest it. However, they do have a delicate, rich flavor.
Most days I handle being disabled pretty well. I am good at keeping a positive outlook and realizing just how blessed I am to be alive. I have the ability to see the blessings in my life and not simply the struggles.
My faith gives me strength.
But there are some days, when it is harder to be the optimist. Some days I feel like this beechnut I photographed.
Full of potential,
yet held back so much by the prickly confines of my disability.
I watch the world go by,
just like the water whirling past this beechnut.
I see all of the things I want to be doing,
and I watch them float by.
It brings a moment of sadness,
then guilt for the sadness.
I have much to be thankful for.
Perhaps someday I will be released,
and be able to meld my life experiences in a way where I can enjoy the things of my past – yet hold on to the appreciation that I have for those things now.
The beechnut either rots in its prickly shell,
or it makes it out and can go on to live so much more.
Some even become a tree.
Some grow tall and strong.
Some make more beechnuts.
Then it hit me,
perhaps I’m already a tree and I just don’t realize it.
~ ~ ~
