One out of one thousand will have the red flame. It’s the scar that makes this tree so unique, and so beautiful.
The tree was a Red Flame Box Elder. The “flame” or the pronounced red mark within the wood is caused by a fungal infection that’s the result a Beatle incursion in which the beetles eat through the bark.
In other words it’s a scar, a reminder of the trauma the tree suffered. As I contemplated my decision, the words “everything leaves a mark” played over and over … I’d gone to the mill to purchase a nice piece of Sycamore, but after seeing the scarred piece of box elder, I knew there was no way I was leaving with out it.
I wanted to build a table that would be a focal point of the office. I wanted to create a place to gather, and heal, and help men and women create solutions to their problems. And this beautiful scarred piece of wood was going to become my new conference table, and the center piece of the new Trauma Informed Law offices.
The table is to embody our next step. It embodies the repaired version of the self, a newer more beautiful iteration that can only be gained through wisdom, and the willingness to overcome.
