Green Side Forever

We canoed through miles of fire burned wilderness lakes and rivers on trip #58. Except for the lake and lowland edges everything was black . What a relief to find the green side and all kinds of life. We had to stop and take some pictures, fish a little, and make camp. I really like the green side, go green!

Fire kills everything. I mourn the loss of hundreds of years of humus burned down one to three feet to the bedrock and the harsh death of any creature there. A forest of blackened dead trees is still standing with their roots fully exposed where there once was soil, lichens, moss, and some supply of nutrients.  We had eaten lunch on a burned island where the rocks at the edges of the lakes crumbled a quarter-inch of corn-flake type material under our feet. More than once we saw huge whitened bones at the waters edges. Being there it’s still hard to imagine almost 100,000 acres of burned wilderness. We paddled until we could camp in the live green forest with mosquitoes  flies and ants, rather than camp in a dead zone where only the low land had some greenery coming back. The shade and shelter in a live forest were worth a few mosquitoes as we stepped into greenery and life.

    I have a new respect for fire and that’s a huge understatement. In the Bible fire is used to describe hell and none of us should take that as lightly as we do no matter what level you are on spiritually. Don’t laugh- the thought that went through my mind was “this is not a place to play the I don’t believe in hell”card.

I want to live life on the green side. Do you think it matters how and where we live? I do. I think we spread life or death to those around us. I think what’s inside of us comes out and spills over. Sometimes a smile gives life while a nasty word flicks a match. It’s no secret that I am a follower of Jesus. Why? because Jesus gives life.  If you ever see a bumper sticker that says”Green Side Forever” I want one. Where in this picture do you see yourself living?  Black or Green?

Want to come to the Boundary waters canoe Area Wilderness sometime? Thankfully most of it is still green.