The Tasty Pine Bush - Lake Superior 5/3/2007

I have discovered that most everything is powerless against the will and might of the wind. Everything eventually is moved or worn down by that invisible force. Birds, water, hair, even people move when the wind blows with strength and purpose. Scent also moves with the wind—I realize that statement may seem a bit redundant, everyone knows that smell moves with the wind—but it may hold a different meaning when I say that when sent is moved with the wind; so too does taste.
My lunch today outside on the grass next to the sapping pine bushes was not as I expected it to be. I noticed that as I opened my mouth to welcome my succulent sandwich, the wind would push the scent, and by consequence the taste, from my mouth and replace it with the sappy stench of the sticky droplets of the pine bush next to me. Oddly enough, the taste of that pine bush has a familiar texture of a PB&J sandwich; evidence of the fact that you learn something new every day.
You may think that these circumstances would qualify as a bad lunching experience. But I hardly see it that way, after all I learned a great deal. I discovered the taste of pine bush sap without having to actually lick those glistening drops off of pointy needles, and an appreciation and understanding of the wind was gained.
For what it’s worth the bush did try to protect me against the wind as much as it could and in return—in this spring season—I tasted its sappy hormones on my sandwich. I listened to its stiff needles clack and tick against one another. I watched droplets of sap glisten and shake in the sun while listening to the wind ravish the shore with the waters of Lake Superior—all the while my hair was only gently blowing as I sat in the protection of that tasty pine bush. And the sun was able to warm my face and body, and the wind couldn’t chill me, but it moved me to write this.