“The truth was an avalanche
an avalanche midsummer,
which is to say,
it didn’t seem possible,
but it happened.
And I was buried
beneath the cold
immense weight of it.
Crushed but still breathing–
another impossible truth.
I know some would like to see
the uprooted world
already green and lush again,
but anyone who
has wandered through
old avalanche paths
knows it takes many seasons
before the fallen old-growth trees
have moldered into soil,
many seasons before the new saplings
have grown into forest again.
The healing begins quickly,
but takes a long time.
Even then, the forest is never the same.
So much of transformation
happens beneath perception.
We all live in the avalanche path.”

~Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer from All the Honey