April 30, 2014 - Tree Food

Did you know that there are things that eat trees?  Not the fruit of trees, but the trees themselves.  Woodpeckers do.  Well, sort of.  They're actually after the ants and other bugs who are eating the tree, but they destroy it nonetheless.  Giraffes and koala bears and goats eat trees, too.  Aside from animals and insects, there are fungi that eat trees.  This birch is covered with "tree ears" so much that they almost look like wings.  Any second now, I expect it will fly away.  Trees always seem so stately and solid to me, but in reality they're in constant change.  If there's one thing I've noticed from spending so much time outdoors, it's that everything is always eating everything.  Nothing seems to stop eating, including us.  It doesn't seem fair to me that trees can be eaten since they can't move to get away from their predators.  Yet they don't complain.  There's a lesson in there for me somewhere.  Perhaps I live in a forest of Buddhist trees.