The tree of life

For years this old battered birch tree graced our yard. I sat at my window and watched the birds nesting, fighting, living in that tree.

About a week ago a storm blew through and the old birch was too hallow and too rotted to stay upright.

Still, the birds come. They dodge the branches of the bush where it fell to find the hallow space where their babies still live, secure in the nest their parents built for them.

Through it all, even as its own life ends, the tree provides life and sanctuary to the bird.