Beauty in Structure

Trees are my teachers.

This morning I realized that the trees in our neighborhood are not, as I first thought, turning to their fall colors early.Rather, they are being eaten by Japanese Beetles. The beetles start eating at the top of the tree and work their way down. From a distance, it looks like this:

 photo at laTURF

If you look closely at the leaves, the beetles have "skeletonized" them, removing the pulpy areas and leaving the fibrous ones.

photo by Rachel Wetzler. A Bit of Yellow… Beautiful quilts!

So there I am, simultaneously marveling at the beauty of these lace-like leaves and sorrowing over the health of the trees.

I am left with the determination to strengthen and beautify my own underlying structure.