Once again another major hurricane storm is approaching my home of the Big Bend in North Florida. You live in Florida long enough these storms are just a cycle of life and locals understand what to do to prepare or when to evacuate. Unlike many areas of the Sunshine Sate, North Florida is a little different in their flora. Most think of Florida and the beaches or maybe the Everglades, central Florida has rolling hills of agriculture and farm lands and there are amazing springs, lakes and rivers throughout. The Big Bend has a different look, the live oaks and abundance of tree life here provide amazing visuals and a sense of calm to those that take the time to look up. The history here has preserved the trees, we build roads under them, sidewalks around them, and most visitors find it so unique they will purposely take a longer route if it means traveling down one of our many canopy roads.

I have very real and logical fears that this storm will wreck absolute havoc on this biosphere and I am bracing for the real possibility that there will be no recovering the original beauty.

I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray …. Joyce Kilmer

Live Oak Canopy