The Tree with the Lights in it

Now that I am three days into my internship, I have no excuse for not blogging regularly. I have so much to post from the TAM class and will be posting project updates as I begin to develop it. However, when I was organizing all of my pictures, I found a picture that represents what my time in Costa Rica is all about. I originally posted an excerpt from one of Annie Dillard's stories. The chapter is called the Tree with the Lights in it and it is all about looking at things with new eyes from new perspectives and interpreting it in significant ways. Although the snip-it and picture are posted on the right hand side, I will draw attention to them here. As I have lived in three different places the past week and gone through numerous transitions, I am compelled to see things with fresh eyes and an open mind. 


The picture was taken one early morning while we were taking the TAM class. This was the view out of the ADE center every morning and the infrequent sun was so welcome by this tree. 

When the doctor took her bandages off and led her into the garden, the girl who was no longer blind saw "the tree with the lights in it." It was for this tree I searched through the peach orchards of summer, in the forests of fall and down winter and spring for years. Then one day I was walking along Tinker Creek thinking of nothing at all and I saw the tree with the lights in it. I saw the backyard cedar where the mourning doves roost charged and transfigured, each cell buzzing with flame. I stood on the grass with the lights in it, grass that was wholly fire, utterly focused and utterly dreamed. It was less like seeing than like being for the first time seen, knocked breathless by a powerful glance.