Volatile weather this summer has changed the landscape of some of my favorite trails. This tree at Wilson-Tuscarora State Park has been devastated by storms, and yet it remains standing. So much like my own journey.

Storms have knocked me over. Many times I thought I was down for good. But when the sun came out again (and it always comes out again) I realized I was still standing. Not in the direction I had started. Not in the manner in which I expected. Or planned.

But standing I was. And after time I came to appreciate that I was more interesting, more beautiful, for the storms that had changed me, than I would have been had I never been knocked over.