I drove through a recently bushfire affected region last week. The ground was still blackened, but not as much as the tree trunks. The foliage and grass that would normally cover the bush floor was slowly achingly coming back to something that resembled life, and those trees that survived, still stood tall.

The stand out from the drive though were the two things flourishing today.

The weeds. The surviving trees.

I’m guessing the weeds were the first ones in after the fire trucks rolled out. They love abusing the voids in our society, the empty holes, the spare ground, the unused lots. There will always be weeds, in the bush, and in business. We can’t change the weeds, and history tells us that any concerted effort to introduce other species to eradicate weeds, is a plan fraught with danger and failure. The best way to get rid of weeds is to make the rest of the garden/forest/marketplace as healthy as possible because then there’s no room for weeds.

As for the surviving trees though, they were the most impressive displays.

Obviously their trunks were burnt, and their spirits were dampened, but they metaphorically held their breath long enough for the bushfire to burn through and today thanks to their deep roots, and their strong trunks, they had the leaves just inside them ready to spring out back to action when the fires calmed, the rains came, and the sun shone again.

Any efforts to regrow during the bushfire would have just resulted in more burns. But today those deep rooted, strong trunked, trees are alive with the deepest colours springing out of their leaves.

Be the surviving tree. Be a part of a healthy forest. This too shall pass.