They call is culture shock.
I am in the adjustment phase in the four stages of culture shock.
"Adjustment phase:
Again, after some time (usually 6 to 12 months), one grows accustomed to the new culture and develops routines. One knows what to expect in most situations and the host country no longer feels all that new. One becomes concerned with basic living again, and things become more "normal". One starts to develop problem-solving skills for dealing with the culture, and begins to accept the culture ways with a positive attitude. The culture begins to make sense, and negative reactions and responses to the culture are reduced."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_shock
One thing I desperately missed was Oak trees. My person favorite. It resonates with my soul. Tall, strong, wise, and mystical. I felt I had many rings to my core as well.
Northern Illinois is green and prosperous. It was lush and had a green decadence. The falls were something to behold. Sixty feet of glowing magnificence. The winters showed the gnarly bare branches hibernating their power waiting for the release of the spring.
Winter is the time to draw inward and cultivate our power so that it can be released into the spring to create an abundant world.
Here in Wyoming. There are no trees. Well so I saw. To me, they were sickly and weak. They are thin and straggly.
I sometimes sit and look at the tree in my backyard. It is ten feet and half the branches on it are dead. The branches look frail and starved.
Today I was looking at it and saw something else. I saw how strong that tree actually is. How much more it had to fight for its existance. The very tree I looked at as weak became stronger than an oak.
An oak branches become hardened. With no flexibility no change can take place. As a result it becomes too heavy and falls.
A tree out here is a survivor. With its harsh winters and desert like environment it still grows.
Oak Trees: In Celtic mythology, it is the tree of doors, believed to be a gateway between worlds, or a place where portals could be erected
In Norse mythology, the oak was sacred to the thunder god, Thor. Some scholars speculate[weasel words] that the reason for this is that the oak – the largest tree in northern Europe – was the one most often struck by lightning. Thor's Oak was a sacred tree of the Germanic Chatti tribe. According to legend, the Christianisation of the heathen tribes by Saint Boniface was marked by the oak's being replaced by the fir (whose triangular shape symbolizes the Trinity) as a "sacred" tree.[29]
Willow Trees: Willow is grown for biomass or biofuel, in energy forestry systems, as a consequence of its high energy in-energy out ratio, large carbon mitigation potential and fast growth.
Quaking Aspen: Here in Wyoming...
It propagates itself primarily through root sprouts, and extensive clonal colonies are common.
So if I had to learn about myself through these trees is that everything is beautiful Everything is God. I am a part of that everything and encompass everything.
In Illinois I was rigid. I was hard. Out here in Wyoming, I am starving myself of all luxury and convenience to find something stronger in myself. To find something deeper.
There is no such thing as a smart teacher... only smart students. I am a student of life and my greatest teacher is God.
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