038 First Green After Fire
Hey Grass, the fire took everything above the ground, and you were among the first things green again.
Where were you keeping your life?
When everything above the ground is gone, what is left of you?
After a summer fire, a hillside is black. Smoke still hangs in the air. Nothing is alive.
A few weeks later, after the first rain, the black is pricked with green.
What really happens
Grass keeps its growing buds low, at or below the ground, tucked inside leaf sheaths and in the soil.
Fire burns the leaves above, but the buds survive. That is why grass is among the first things to turn green again after a fire.
How we know: Fire ecologists have long studied how grasses recover after burning; grasslands across the world depend on it.
The turn
When we lose something big, a job, a home, a plan, it can feel as if everything has burned.
But the most important part of us is often kept low and hidden: our values, our skills, the people who love us.
Three takeaways
- What you lose above the ground is not all of you.
- Keep your growing points safe and low.
- Green comes back faster than you think.
The fire took the leaves. It never found the roots.
I say to thee weapons reach not the Life; / Flame burns it not, waters cannot o'erwhelm, / Nor dry winds wither it.