April 12

I stood next to this tree for a few minutes at baseball practice this afternoon. At some point, I turned and caught a glimpse of it, and something about its bark --its uniformly tattered trappings-- caught my eye. So I snapped a pic and made a mental note to think on it more later.

I think that the reality is that I feel kind of like this tree at times: like I'm worn out and falling apart. I had a few unexpected gut-check moments today that forced me to swallow waves of emotion that threatened to pull me under. And those moments are, simplistically put, taxing in a way that I can't really fully define. In my case, I guess I look okay on the outside, but on the more difficult days when reality is too strong, I feel tattered on the inside.

But the good thing? Underneath the worn out outer layer is a fresh, new layer of "skin," so one day, all will be well again.