The tree has broken its back.  Perhaps by an avalanche, but I gather from the surrounding trees, all standing tall, heavy snow may have laden its branches, causing it to snap one winter.  Yet, this tree has the desire to live and persist in this world, as one of its branches has now become the back of the tree.

A Tree that has broken its back.

Granted that if we were to break our back, we may perish sheerly by our physical makeup, but that is not the correlation I am thinking, rather it is failure which leads to success.  This tree didn’t dwell on its own failure, but rather how to live in the high mountains, regardless of hardship.  We have all experienced failure in life, yet this tree by its own existence, will not let failure stop it from living.

I look at this tree in admiration, and I wonder where I am in life now?

Author’s note:  Excerpt taking from his journal, as he was hiking in the Sierra Mountains, Sequoia National Park