{"id":6715,"date":"2016-01-29T18:05:59","date_gmt":"2016-01-29T23:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/?p=6715"},"modified":"2019-05-15T13:50:06","modified_gmt":"2019-05-15T17:50:06","slug":"branching-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/?p=6715","title":{"rendered":"Branching out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Winter keeps invading my spirit. I rally and laugh, and then a cold wind knocks me down to burrow under layers of fleece.<\/p>\n<p>The singular gift of winter\u00a0in North Georgia is the lovely lace of bare trees. White oaks, red oaks, maples, poplars, sweet gum, sourwood, their dancing arms and fingers choreographed to some music we can&#8217;t hear.<\/p>\n<p>Those skeletal branches seem to reach right into our own limbs. No matter how tall, their fingers grab the marrow of our own bones.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-233\" title=\"warriors_47661\" src=\"https:\/\/toseeatree.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/02\/warriors_47661.jpg?w=500&amp;h=375\" alt=\"warriors_47661\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Patterns in nature speak the resounding, wordless truth: All connects.<\/p>\n<p>All take forms.\u00a0We are drawn to forms and call them beauty because they reside in us.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-228\" title=\"vascoleaf_3660-w\" src=\"https:\/\/toseeatree.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/02\/vascoleaf_3660-w.jpg?w=500&amp;h=666\" alt=\"vascoleaf_3660-w\" width=\"500\" height=\"666\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Chinese have a word for it: li.<\/p>\n<p>David Wade, in his book \u201cLi: Dynamic Form in Nature,\u201d defines it in various ways \u2013 \u201ca manifestation of the gestalt, the inherent pattern of things\u2026 the graphic expression of a great range of archetypal modes of action.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-226\" title=\"moonset-b_5558_f\" src=\"https:\/\/toseeatree.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/02\/moonset-b_5558_f.jpg?w=500&amp;h=405\" alt=\"moonset-b_5558_f\" width=\"500\" height=\"405\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Brancha, or branching patterns, are among the easiest to see, and very common in nature.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-265\" title=\"_igp9611\" src=\"https:\/\/toseeatree.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/02\/_igp9611.jpg?w=500&amp;h=313\" alt=\"_igp9611\" width=\"500\" height=\"313\" \/><\/p>\n<p>They are, Wade notes, \u201cquite essential to the workings of complex organisms\u2026 [they] provide an elegant solution where there is a need to access every part of a given area in the most efficient and economical way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-225\" title=\"aa4-orzangeseaweed_5624\" src=\"https:\/\/toseeatree.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/02\/aa4-orzangeseaweed_5624.jpg?w=500&amp;h=375\" alt=\"aa4-orzangeseaweed_5624\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Brain neurons,<\/p>\n<p>seaweed,<\/p>\n<p>lightning,<\/p>\n<p>veins,<\/p>\n<p>rivers\u2026. All follow branching patterns, flowing out or drawing in.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-6722 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/layered-limbs-in-winter-c_0195.jpg\" alt=\"layered-limbs-in-winter-c_0195\" width=\"500\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/layered-limbs-in-winter-c_0195.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/layered-limbs-in-winter-c_0195-220x300.jpg 220w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Branches dance with longing, pulling out toward something larger,<\/p>\n<p>finding energy to continue the quest.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-229\" title=\"yearning-b_8597\" src=\"https:\/\/toseeatree.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/02\/yearning-b_8597.jpg?w=500&amp;h=375\" alt=\"yearning-b_8597\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The body of this post was originally published Feb. 27, 2009, on a blog I did following the life of a beech tree. It was called\u00a0<em><a id=\"infinity-blog-title\" title=\"Scroll back to top\" href=\"https:\/\/toseeatree.wordpress.com\/\" rel=\"home\">To See a Tree<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s penny is a 2009 in honor of <em>To See a Tree<\/em>. The reverse side of the penny is Lincoln, putting aside his woodcutting to read.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-6738\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/jan-29-2009-300x191.jpg\" alt=\"jan 29 2009\" width=\"300\" height=\"191\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/jan-29-2009-300x191.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/jan-29-2009.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Winter keeps invading my spirit. I rally and laugh, and then a cold wind knocks me down to burrow under layers of fleece. The singular gift of winter\u00a0in North Georgia is the lovely lace of bare trees. White oaks, red oaks, maples, poplars, sweet gum, sourwood, their dancing arms and fingers choreographed to some music &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/?p=6715\" class=\"more-link\">read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Branching out<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[321],"tags":[19,609,35,82,611,610,614,613,156,612],"class_list":["post-6715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tress","tag-19","tag-archetype","tag-art","tag-beauty","tag-beech","tag-branch","tag-branching","tag-li","tag-photography","tag-tree"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6715"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6741,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6715\/revisions\/6741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}