Heartwood
New Zealand had another very large wind and rain storm on the heels of Cyclone Cook. This one started on Tuesday afternoon and
left us without power for part of a night. Some of Auckland has been without
power for many days.
webfiles
A tornado in Taranaki destroyed homes
The trampoline of our friends the Clarkes now resides in a neighbors tree.
Much of the power outages could be traced to fallen trees.
As we have driven by
many fallen trees we have noticed three things, two of which we had seen before:
1. The roots of many of them are very shallow. (lost lots of gum trees, pine
trees, olive trees) 2. Even the trees
with usually deeper roots have pulled the very wet and soggy earth up with them like the photo 2 above (even a few oaks toppled this go around, with pretty strong winds of up to 214 kgs). But the third observation was different: 3. Many of the trees snapped right off,
not just large branches but even near the base of the trunk or a little into
the roots. We're not tree experts, but on
these trees it looked like the heartwood wasn’t very strong.
So what is “heartwood”? It’s the hard center core of the tree that’s been
around for years, weathered much, seen it all, and is usually rich with the oils and
resins that make it the valued wood for building strong beautiful things. But when the old seasoned heartwood isn’t
strong or is diseased with whatever makes it weak, then the tree isn’t strong and is left vulnerable to storms
and wind.
We finally got the chance to actually tramp for ourselves the great pink Lightpath in downtown Auckland, an international gold medal
winning trail.
 |
| web It's designed well and much of the trail points to Maori and native arts and meanings. |
There are Maori symbols woven into the metal and designs on the trail.
One piece of art is a painting on the side of a very large building (as seen below) depicting a Maori mother with her tattooed
chin to remind her to speak words of truth and goodness to her children.
It’s an incredible walk.
It’s also very, very PINK.
NOW FOR THE HEARTWOOD PIECE:
We found
it pretty fascinating as to why they chose to paint the trail the pink magenta
color. The color is in honor of the distinct
deep pink heartwood of one the country’s valued (second largest) native tree,
the giant Totara tree. These trees can live to be 1000 years old.
So, besides being “pink”, why is good Totara heartwood so valuable: It is trusted, firm, and strong. The huge Maori waka taua warships, capable of carrying 100 warriors, were often hollowed out from the heartwood of a single Totara log. The Maori also used the solid and trusted heartwood of the Totara for framing and roofing their “whare” (houses). Medicinally the smoke from a Totara burning log was supposed to be a cure for skin disease, and since European times, huge areas of Totara have been felled to supply solid, trustworthy timber for general building, railway sleepers, telephone poles etc. It can be counted on to produce good trusted heartwood.
Then there’s “PINK DIRT” the company that digs the sure foundations, the
heart of stable buildings here.
And "Pink Bins" receptacles for big building projects
Add to your "pink" some pretty pink lilies, pink grass, and a pink building in the heart of downtown Epsom.
And to top it off, what color should appear in one of the evening sunsets but...you guessed it...PINK! NZ appreciates its pink. No wonder, now we know its at the heart or heartwood of some of the best in things in NZ.
Red isn't pink but close.
The Downs and our friends the Stosich's were in charge of our Senior Missionary Couples FHE last week. So we "hoe'd it down", grabbed our parders, and after dinner Elder Downs taught us "old people line dancing" (and no one broke anything).
Food to provide energy for a heap of dancin'
The calm a day or two before the storm we (Stosich's too) went to Browns Bay. Could walk out a long way before it got too deep.
Sister Clarke's (the trampoline in the tree lady) Institute class at Harbour stake.
Missionary flat inspections...do they like us or just tolerate our inspections? OR maybe they just like to take selfies???
More inspections...great sports, especially as one was sick in bed when we came.
Got to spend some time with some great folks here in NZ on an education assignment from church headquarters in Salt Lake, Kauri Vidal and Richard Hawkes, working to further great education opportunities to more young people. Kauri and Richard are work friends of my sister Kathy (small world). They love to get to know the young people so they came with us to visit 2 beautiful YSA's, Sulita and Kardenya.
Along with Kauri and Richard, (the Henshaws and Holbrooks too) we met up with Tom Forsgren, the Principal of the Colonia Juarez Mexico Academy, who is also here for some education meetings. We think that educational opportunities throughout the world have good things ahead with these great people in the trenches.
THOTL notes: We are awed daily at
how many times we see THOTL. Numerous
times this week we have been delayed getting on the motorway or missed getting on altogether only to find there have been
serious “incidents” (yikes…we must keep heaven busy trying to keep us safe). We have again found ourselves meeting up with just the person at just
the right time and (way beyond our own abilities) saying just the right thing, that
stops us both when we look back on it. We
acknowledge His Hand in our making it into the carpark and our apartment just barely
before the power went out, finding a little torch (flashlight) in the dark (we’ll
be picking up some more and being better prepared next time), or in seeing our
family back home being protected and blessed way beyond what we could do if we
were there (granddaughters Gwynee and Livy above).
It you trust Him and are
looking, we promise that you can find THE HAND OF THE LORD in your life.
We thought much about the trees, about the ones that came down, that looked on
the outside to be solid trees, but their roots, their heartwood or their
stamina just weren’t strong enough like those with firm, solid, unshaken heartwood, to weather the storm. Surrounding trees and forests flourish as well in the company of the good and the strong.
The Lord has given us good timber, trees we can trust will weather the storms ahead. They are old and seasoned, but spiritually firm and strong, there’s not much better “heartwood” anywhere. 1 Samuel 16:7”…man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” Maybe even the “heartwood”.
We love you and hope you can weather your storms, or moments of loss of power or darkness knowing that there's great hope and light ahead..."weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning." Keep your heartwood strong and pink, surround yourselves with other great trees and hang on.
He loves you,
We love you,
Vance and Louenda
Elder and Sister Downs
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