After the storm

 The storm on the East Coast that made headlines earlier this week hit the Georgia Piedmont. In our neighborhood, large trees were uprooted. Some fell across power lines. Two fell across roads, blocking them. For a day or two, we all drove carefully.

But human beings are impatient. Power lines were restored and roads were cleared.

I looked at the ground on our morning walks. It wasn’t just big trees. The way was littered with leaves, twigs, small branches, big limbs.

In the forest south of Stone Mountain, you see downed leaves, twigs, branches and trees everywhere you look. If you pause on the trail and scan 360 degrees, you will not see a clear way out. You will have to step around downed trees and brush anywhere you go.

The sun’s energy that was stored in all that plant tissue isn’t lost, isn’t hauled away in garbage trucks. Since the storm, small fungal threads have penetrated between the cells of the dead plants and are breaking them down. Bacteria are digesting the tissue. Invertebrates are chewing, clawing and gnawing.

It takes time, but all that fell — the countless leaves and the ancient trees — will be absorbed back into the life of the forest.