new growth

(black bamboo shoot)

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.

~ Maya Angelou ~
from her inaugural poem, "On the Pulse of Morning" (January 20, 1993)

The black bamboo took off this weekend--two new shoots. Both of them are big and quite a way from the center of the plant. That is all good news in bamboo land.

Now, may we develop some offshoots, far from the original "plant" to keep us from re-living history. May we develop big, strong shoots to take us in new directions. We can have new growth, rooted in learning from past pain.