Every morning since moving to Colorado I have been taking morning hikes with my dog, Yuki. We go to a trail near home, and I’m thrilled that this area provides great inspiration, in the form of natural bonsai.
Pine tree seeds fall in the cracks of boulders throughout the trail and on those cracks they establish a niche. Against all odds they survive, and unintimidated by their larger neighbors they carry on, not minding the convention of what a tree should be like.
The thwarted trees are as inspiring to me as they have been to people in Japan for hundreds of years. Like tenkara, I believe what we now know as bonsai was not so much invented as it was discovered. Small trees on rocks, trout rising to insects. Over time the techniques for both tenkara and bonsai cultivation have been refined, but nature was most certainly the original inspiration.
The world did not end today, so hopefully its natural wonders may inspire you in one way or another today.
