“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”

I never seem to truly appreciate the beauty and value of something until it is damaged. This week I was quickly reminded of the beauty of nature. How beautiful are the trees that shade and give color to our campus. Watching and listening to them slowly, one by one fall and lose life it made me think about the human race. Life brings us storms...some make it through the weight and strain, others lose a part of themselves but still stand tall, and then there are those that can't take the weight and are destroyed--much like the trees around campus.

I was watching the news early this week and heard about a man and his friends who spent their day knocking the ice off of the "Survivor Tree" in downtown Oklahoma City. This particular tree survived the bombing in '95 and these people were determined not to let it die now. What a great picture. Sometimes in life we can't do things on our own. We require for someone to knock some of the weight from our branches in order to survive.

The campus looks quite sad. It seems as if a war has hit and the causalities have been left behind. It feels like the very essence of death--not only having fallen trees but also an empty campus. I look forward to Spring--to new life, for a time when the wounded survivors heal and bloom.