“Scientists can detect drought patterns within moisture sensitive trees such as the Ponderosa pine and the Douglas fir because their rings can reflect stream flow within any given year. We to can reflect personal droughts within our own lives, and like the Ponderosa we will capture within our cores the pains as well as the joys just like the rings of a tree. These layers build over time to reflect our ever-changing environment whether good or bad and will in the early stages of adulthood begin the solidification of our worldview. I had a tree in my backyard that from all outside appearances seemed fine, but within its center was rotten through and through. Not until a windstorm did we know the depth of its rottenness. We discovered that the tree was virtually hollow within a six to eight foot section once it was fallen.”