Fracture & Healing

'On our farm we have a row of Maple trees, many years ago these trees were used as fence posts for the stringing of barbed wire around the pasture. In some places the trees fought against the barbed wire as a hostile agent, and here the trees have long and ugly scars that deface the bark and inner structure of the trees. In other places, the barbed wire has been accepted and incorporated into the life of the tree. Where this happened, the barbed wire left no mark on the tree, and all that shows is the wire entering on one side and exiting at the other.

What makes the difference in the quality of a tree's response to injury? What was there in some trees that made them injure themselves by fighting against injury? What made it possible for other trees to be able to incorporate the injuring object and become master of the barbed wire rather than its victim?' Edgar. N. Jackson The Many Faces of Grief, pp. 123-4.

Hospital Gardens, Ukraine (series) © Richard Ansett 2012