What I learned from.......Trees?

           I live in Centerville, Utah......... yeah I'm not surprised you haven't heard of it. Well recently we had a pretty big windstorm here, with winds gusting on the upwards of 100 mph....... pretty intense right? It was a lot of fun to run around in and jump up and down in and see how far back you flew. It was also pretty sweet because we missed 2 days of school! Yeahahahah....... but even though it was a lot of fun, it did a lot of damage. 8 million dollars worth! Even though it was very destructive, it was breathtaking to see how powerful the forces of nature are, in a way it was.......beautiful? I don't know, seems weird to say about the wind....... It's funny to me that we all think we are all so powerful and untouchable with our advanced technology, but something as simple as wind can still cripple us and bring us to our knees. Anyways, the past four days I have spent cleaning up from this event. It has been A LOT of work...... While working I have had a lot of time to think about things and have noticed learned some valuable lessons from the storm....

                 During the storm, quite a few trees fell down.... there were sooooo many of them. Most of the cleanup work involved cutting up these fallen trees, loading trailers with the branches and dumping them off at dumping sites. It took a long time to get all of this done. Anyways, I noticed that like 90 percent of the trees that fell were pine trees. This seemed kind of strange to me...... but then I figured out the reason why most of these fallen trees were pine trees. Pine trees roots do not grow very deep! Pine trees roots are much shallower than other trees, therefore when the big gusts of wind blew these trees, they did not have deep enough roots to keep them anchored so they were uprooted, unlike other trees that had deep roots.

                As I thought about it more, I realized that the concept of having "deep roots," applies to more than just trees, it applied to us to. We have to deepen our "roots" in all areas of life, so that when we are faced with trials or problems, we can stay strong and not be uprooted by the "winds." We deepen our roots when we learn new things, develop our skills, grow spiritually, strengthen our weaknesses or just improve in any area of our life. One of my favorite scriptures relates to this idea:

Helaman 5:12

 12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the ^arock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your ^bfoundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty ^cstorm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

I love this scripture because it tells us that if we have a strong foundation we cannot fall. So if we are well prepared with a strong foundation, and deep roots, we'll make it through the storm.

                  "Act, and not be acted upon." This is one of my favorite sayings, and it definately applied to the cleanup after the storm. After the storm was over, most of the men and young men that were home, and not at work, started the daunting task of cleaning up. For the next four days we would spend a good deal of time outside cleaning everything up. In a way it was kind of fun because we were out working with what seemed to be our entire community. It was hard work, but at the end of each day I was left with a sense of fullfilment. I felt like I actually "did" something that day and  it felt good. Anyways, back to my earlier quote, "Act, and not be acted upon." After the storm and during the cleanup, most of the people from my community were out helping. They were "Acting." They didn't wait for someone to come help them or to come do the work for them, they got right to work and took things into their own hands. This was pretty inspiring to see and testified to the resilience of the people that live in my area. I also noticed that people didn't complain or get to mad about their situations, they just dealt with things and didn't spend time being angry.

            Contrary to this, there were people who "Were acted upon." These were the people that waited for others to come help them, and just let "someone else do it." I'm not talking about the elderly, or other people that actually couldn't do anything and had to wait for someone else to help them. There were people that could easily have stepped outside and helped clean up. They just decided not to "Act." This was sad to see and was kind of disheartening.

           Be the person who Acts. Don't wait for someone else to do what you could. Growing up I have always been taught how important it is to be self-relient and to not rely on others. Because you can't trust that someone will always be their to help you.

          Well I think that's enough for right now...... I sure did learn a lot more from a windstorm than I thought I would...... it was fun for a couple of days but I sure don't hope we have another one for a while.

       -LB