Thick Skinned

This tree is along the trail I frequently walk behind my house. As I passed by it this week, it reminded me of a stat I heard recently. It goes something like this, 95% of your adult personality is unconsciously programed. Now, how you would go about designing a study to come to such conclusion, I do not know. But the message behind this stat does resonate with me. Similar to this tree, we hold a thick skin between us and the world. So much of it there by habit, we don't recognize it as a choice anymore.

The Ponderosa Pine has adapted to grow this thick outer layer, helping protect it from forest fires that are a part of life. What about our outer layers? Are they adaptive like the Ponderosa or do they no longer serve us? Maybe we could afford to shed a few of these layers and live with more of our inner self showing.

The subject for tomorrow's Nature Journaling class in Flagstaff is feathers. I will be bringing feathers with various shapes and patterns to practice with. These will be a fun exercise in painting patterns and learning techniques for painting iridescence. If you haven't signed up yet, you can do so here.