About two or three years ago city workers in the town I live in came and marked a tree on our boulevard with a big orange X.
This dreaded X indicated the tree was diseased and needed to come down. Not long after a crew showed up and removed the shadowy blanket that had covered the home we live in.
Now, every year since, we get large troops of mushrooms standing at attention where the giant tree once stood.
These ‘shrooms are an indication of something going on below the ground not visible to the eye.
While the tree is gone, the roots that once sustained it are still below the surface. Now, though, these roots are rotting and decaying and the mushrooms are thriving because of the discord down below.
As I researched these mushrooms I found something very interesting.
Most of what I found when I Googled them had to do with getting rid of mushrooms in your lawn
Often in these articles the mushrooms were referred to as nuisance fungi or something similar.
One author, however, had a very different take on the mushrooms. He saw them as a beautiful manifestation of the circle of life. The decaying beneath the surface, which couldn’t be seen, created new life above the surface that enhanced the surface in its own way.
As I processed through these thoughts about mushrooms I believe these fungi are analogous to my life and may well be to yours as well.
Over the last few years I have become well aware of pain in my life resulting from my father’s death many years ago. This is pain below the surface that I chose not to deal with and, as a result, it manifested itself above the surface in not very healthy ways.
While most of those around me may not have noticed, those closest to me did, whether they realized it or not.
These mushrooms in my life showed themselves through avoidance in dealing with issues, through walls put up to keep others from getting too close, and in ways I have yet to discover.
It is taking courage to even admit to these mushrooms in my life as it has always been easier to not deal with the things below the surface.
It is early in the journey but, fortunately, I have a wife who has stuck by me in spite of the avoidance and the walls that she has been banging on for years who is challenging and encouraging me along the way.
For much of my life I chose to see the pain as a nuisance fungi rather than a beautiful manifestation of the circle of life.
Many artists have learned to come out from behind theirs walls and embrace their pain and share it with us through their art.
Musical talent is not one of my gifts. However, I have a great appreciation for music and, particularly, for song lyrics.
Check out these lyrics from the 1988 song The Living Years by Mike and the Mechanics:
I wasn’t there that morning
When my father passed away
I didn’t get to tell him
All the things I had to say
I think I caught his spirit
Later that same year
I’m sure I heard his echo
In my baby’s new born tears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years
Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
It’s too late when we die
To admit we don’t see eye to eye
Now I don’t identify totally with these lyrics but every time I hear them I start to tear up. The tears are the mushrooms coming to the surface. I still work way too hard to keep them below the surface because that is what I’m used to doing but I’m working on it.
The song was written by Mike Rutherford and B. A. Robertson. The lyrics tell the story of what Robertson experienced in the death of his own father.
Robertson took the pain below the surface and the mushrooms above the surface manifested themselves in a positive way that lets people know, lets me know, that they are not alone in their pain.
Can you relate to this at all?
How does the pain below your surface manifest itself? Do you have the courage to even find out?
Whether you want to believe it or not the mushrooms are growing above the surface of your life and the people around you are either benefitting from them or paying a price for them.
Do you have the courage to deal with the pain below the surface to have a positive impact with your mushrooms?
1 Peter 4:12-19
Have a STRONG and COURAGEOUS day!
OMG, those words and for sure that song have always brought tears, and I was lucky to have my father for 33 years, but still, he died to young. Thanks for giving me some ideas on allowing those mushrooms to have new meaning and hopefully open my mind to how I might improve the impact on those around me!
Craig, I am convinced that it doesn’t matter what age we lose our parents it is difficult and challenging. We lose a part of who we are and also have to face our own mortality a little closer than we would like.
Thank you for your faithful support!
Dave