A palm tree breaks through the soil- New shoots from a destroyed heliconia.
- A tropical calocasia emerges from a hard-hit area, doubly damaged by the clean up equipment.
- A Flame of the Forest tree, some 30 years old, fell almost horizontal, propped up vertically and supported by boards until roots reestablish themselves.
- More heliconias saying “I’m still here!”
- New growth on an ivy vine.
- An orchid breaks through black volcanic cinder.
- Palm trees.
The Resilience of Life
It has been 34 days since Hurricane Lowell passed Kauai close enough to cause major wind and water damage. Though this was most devastating near the shores, the monastery was hit hard. Today we are celebrating the power of life to renew itself, to recover from catastrophic harm. Already we are seeing new growth, plants rising toward the sun from roots that were protected by the earth even after the plant was demolished. Today we captured a few examples of this renewal which you can see in the slideshow above.
When we awoke on September 8, one of the thousands of plants damaged was a giant Encephalartos, which is in the family commonly called cycad. This one was some 50 years old, and its fronds spread some 40 feet wide before the storm. It was crushed by a truly giant cactus. We trimmed off all the broken fronds, leaving the base which is some 3 feet wide.
After about two weeks, we noticed a new flush of fronds peeking out of the stump. It inspired us to start taking almost daily photos with the intent to make a timelapse of the growth. From September 29 to November 6 we captured the progress, and made a rough timelapse, which we show below. In just 30 seconds these days of growth are revealed. In another couple of weeks it will be back to normal. See the timelapse bwlow:
Gurudeva Speaks on This
