Tsoai

 

Winter night’s frigid darkness freezes everything to the core, but its roots have nowhere to seek warmth.  Scorching summer droughts parch even the richest earth, but very little soil exists to provide moisture.  Westerly winds can topple even the deepest rooted tree, but roots cannot penetrate solid granite.  

Tsoai did not have a choice about where it started life, it has no choice about where it lives life, and it will have no choice about where its life will end.  Tsoai cannot complain, ask for help, or improve its living conditions in any way.  Tsoai stands on its own day after day, year after year, through the summer heat, the strongest wind, and freezing winter nights.  Its only sustenance comes from a tiny shallow crack in a huge granite boulder; it lives in an extremely bleak environment, yet…somehow…it survives.  I first found Tsoai over 25 years ago, and I have thought about it often.  I visited Tsoai again today and was elated to find it still alive.  In times when my own life becomes difficult and I don’t think things could get any worse, I'll make myself a cup of tea, or pour a tall glass of beer, and sometimes...I think of Tsoai.