I found my theme for the New Year: Resilience and Creativity.
Hurricane Matthew, on its path up the Atlantic coast back in October, must have swept this large tree branch onto this South Carolina beach. The hurricane caused quite a bit of destruction and flooding, as these powerful storms tend to do.
On a grey and dreary morning, this oversized driftwood looks broken and out of place…
…Like too many events in our human lives and within the political, economic, and environmental arenas.
What to do with the brokenness? with loss? displacement? with those inevitable setbacks and misfortunes that just cannot be undone?
When I returned to this tree later, just as the setting sun draped it in warm, golden colors, I noticed that a transformation had happened.
Look at what people did to this lost tree!
Someone had lovingly decorated this lonely, broken tree with treasures they found along the beach – shells, corals, sand dollars. They collected grasses to tie the ornaments to the tree, accessorizing and beautifying it with the gifts from the sea.
“Psychological resilience is defined as an individual’s ability to successfully adapt to life tasks in the face of social disadvantage or highly adverse conditions….Resilience is one’s ability to bounce back from a negative experience with “competent functioning”. Resilience is not a rare ability; in reality, it is found in the average individual and it can be learned and developed by virtually anyone.” Wikipedia
“Resilience is what gives people the psychological strength to cope with stress and hardship. It is the mental reservoir of strength that people are able to call on in times of need to carry them through without falling apart.”
(Kendra Cherry)
From the moment I saw it, this displaced tree symbolized resilience and overcoming adversity. Beyond resilience, it captures the spirit of creativity – objects that we do not normally associate as belonging together found a symbiotic union thereby transforming and evolving into a work of art.
The DP Weekly Photo Challenge: Resilient.
What a beautifully creative post on something so significant as resilience, especially in the current climate when hurricanes are ripping through our lives……
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Thank you, A., a resilient and creative woman yourself 🙂
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Lovely shots…this is like the beach version of Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. 🙂
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It reminded me of an alternative Xmas tree, also 🙂
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Great intentions for the new year Annette. To creative resiliency!
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Now to roll up my sleeves….Happy New Year, Brad!
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It’s so much easier to write about these grand intentions than live them. 🙂
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My experience is that once intentions are written down, they become real and keep informing my actions, even when I don’t look at what I wrote for a while.
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Agreed Annette. I want to live more intentionally this year.
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go for it!
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🙂
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This is wonderful. I have a little artificial tree I decorate every year with artifacts from Texas: shells, fossils, tiny bits of ball moss. It’s great to see someone else decorating nature with nature — a gesture that affirms values quite different from those held by many. A happy new year to you, and every good wish for a creative new year.
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I really like what you are doing and I bet it looks great! I did that with a homemade wreath – decorated with found materials and a few traditional ornaments that I still had packed away. I found out that since I took photos for this post, more “ornaments” have been added to the tree branch. Happy New Year to you, too!
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I love this! I am looking forward to your New Year and your world of Resilience and Creativity!
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Thank you, Claudia, so glad this resonated with you.
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What a marvelous find – especially to capture the before (which in itself is quite a sight) and after versions. I think my comment didn’t get posted.
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Got this comment, Dahlia. Thank you.
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Has been interesting, learning resilience in my 60’s. So very lovely to have company.
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I bet you that you’ve always had it, otherwise you wouldn’t be here. Perhaps now is the harvesting time – what can we extract from our many decades worth of experience that still holds up and helps us move forward? And where do we have to improvise and find new strategies?
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You ask the crucial questions! I guess we shall see.
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Lovely photography and wonderfully stated intents.
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Hello, Sha’Tara. I remember your name and comment from Carol’s blog. Thank you for stopping by and deciding to follow.
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Amazing work!! Please check out my site if you get a chance. I am really looking for some feedback from more experienced bloggers. Thanks! https://ratiowrites.com
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Hello, Ratio. Congrats on starting your blog. Keep writing and people will find you. It also helps to participate in the wordpress writing and photo challenges which quickly connects you with other bloggers. Best of luck, you’ve got what it takes 🙂
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Thanks! That means a lot! I didn’t know they had challenges!? I’ll have to check that out. Your work is extremely inspirational, one of the best blogs I’ve came across personally.
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Thank you. If you follow the link at the bottom of my post, it takes you to the WP site where you can sign up to be notified of the weekly photo challenge. There are other challenges that focus mostly on writing.
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Here is a weekly photo challenge by Ailsa: https://wheresmybackpack.com/2016/12/31/travel-theme-leaves/
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Ratio – here is the link to today’s writing prompt: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/gone/
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Annette, this post touched me. Here’s to a new year filled with resilience, creativity, and hope.
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Yes, yes, and yes, Debbie 🙂
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Beautiful photos and profound message about the alchemy that transforms tragedy into a work of art through loving creativity.
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I love your word “alchemy” for this process of transformation, Carol. If only we could apply this process to our own woundedness and that of others more often…
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That decorated ‘tree’ reminds me of a painting by Salvador Dali 🙂
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Really? Which one, if you can remember the title?
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‘The Persistence of Memory’—the ‘tree’ and the ‘clocks’ 🙂
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Ah, yes, I wondered whether you meant that one. Thanks for mentioning it.
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What a beautiful synchronicity! I love that you found this.
May your 2017 be full of wonder. Love, Aggie
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Hi Aggie, so good to hear from you again. I recently looked for your old blog but couldn’t find it. Hope you are doing well.
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I agree decorating nature with nature is amazing ! These pictures are awesome and they really showcase your talent and the talent of person that took the time to do this !
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Thank you, Tilly. It was such a delight to “discover” this decorated driftwood. It gave me the idea to make my own Christmas wreath from pine tree boughs and found objects from nature. It was a lot of fun.
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beautiful 🙂
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Ah ! Finally the nature symbolizer
My love for nature and searching symbols is same as yours . So I am not the only crazy in the gang 🙂
One lovely post , with nice flow of words
Something of my view , I write about these things:)
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Nice to meet you, Charvi. I will definitely check out your blog.
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🙂
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That is beautiful! I live in SC as well and while I’m in the upstate we still had a little damage. A patio table was shattered by a fallen tree branch and yard decorations became missiles, but it could have been a lot worse. Resilience…I like it.
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The power of a hurricane…glad it wasn’t worse than what you described.
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I love what you took away from that moment, and seeing that sad little tree branch so lovingly decorated. I get it. Resilience is a fitting word for me this year too.
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Thank you, Angela. Yes, we all could use a bit of TLC to help us with our resilience these days 🙂
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Decorating that limb is also a symbol for how we help one another when times are tough. Friends and resilience…. The staples of life. Brenda
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Totally agree with you, Brenda. Having helpful and compassionate friends increases our resilience. Very good point.
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I love it so much. 🙂
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Thank you, Joycelin!
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Reblogged this on The Beauty Along the Road and commented:
Resilience and Creativity continue to be important guiding values especially now, as the “driftwood” of Hurricane Covid-19 affects all of us, no matter where we are in this world. Blessings for a healthy new year to all of my readers!
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