Of Winds and Roots

Tipped Over Tree in Recent Santa Ana Winds

When I first found out 36 years ago about the tall girl in Apartment 7, I came to know that she and her sister were from a place in Southern California called Santa Ana.  That wasn’t where they really were from; they were from a town next to Santa Ana called Tustin.  But I became acquainted with the name of the town.

When that tall girl and I moved to California in 1994 as husband and wife, she introduced me to the phenomena known as the “Santa Anas.”  To those who have never lived here or do not know about western US weather patterns, whenever a high pressure system forms over Utah, or very close to Utah, winds rotate in a clockwise pattern and blow from the Beehive State westward toward California, particularly Southern California.  In the late spring to the summer to the early fall, those winds can become gusty and are quite warm or hot as they blow over the heat of the deserts of Nevada and Arizona.  They can also blow in the winter, albeit without warmth.

Just recently, an unusually strong, cold Santa Ana blew in the Los Angeles area where I live, particularly from Pasadena eastward.  The results were many:  Ann’s community college where she teaches closed as did all of the K-12 schools in the area, people were encouraged to stay off the streets because of tree damage, electric lines fell causing wide spread outages, semi-trailers were blown over, and many, many trees lost limbs, or palm fronds, or were entirely blown over.

The governmental clean up agencies went to work quickly to make sure main roads including freeways were not obstructed.  Many days later, side streets were still littered with mounds of foliage remnants, and some folks still did not have electricity.  And some trees, many of them quite tall and veterans of other Santa Ana winds, lay horizontally, their proud limbs contorted or broken and roots now exposed for all to see.

How is it that a proud pine or a stately sycamore or a princely palm can be blown over?  What allows a tree to “weather” storms and winds and stay upright?  The trees that were blown over last week for the most part had shallow root systems caused by frequent watering.  Oft applied water meant they did not have to send their roots deep into the ground.  Their shallow root systems sufficiently anchored them, especially here in Southern California where weather is quite mild most of the time.  But when this particularly strong Santa Ana blew, the roots failed some them, and they fell crashing to the earth.

I see a metaphor in what happened for me in my life.  Am I a strong tree that people around me can rely upon and that can offer shade, beauty, and consistency to them?  Or do I become complacent because of the relative ease of my life?  Knowing that I have control over my “root system,” am I making an effort to send my roots deep into the soil of my wife and family, my religion, my friends and other important relationships—that dirt which is deep and which can anchor one’s life?  Am I investing enough energy into my roots each day so that when emotionally and spiritually challenging “storms” appear, I remain emotionally strong?  And when a hurricane-like Santa Ana wind of adversity and trial appear, are my relationship roots deep enough to keep me upright?

I’m glad that I saw this example of nature.  I am, after all, responsible for my” tree” and for its” roots.”