the meaning of life

The lane past my house used to be lined with black cherry trees, planted by the farmer when he purchased the property about 30 years ago.  Unfortunately, the soil in that area isn't suitable for cherry trees and one by one they all died.  The last remaining tree gave up the ghost two years ago and the bits of semi-vertical truck that haven't broken off in storms stand lifeless as decay consumes it.  I've been meaning to cut it down and clean up that area but I figured it wasn't high enough on my priority list and chose to mow around it instead.

For years I watched this tree decompose as the wild rose and virginia creeper continued to consume it until I saw the beautiful landscaping job mother nature was working on.

The centerpiece of this display is a very healthy oak, feeding on the corpse of the cherry tree, rising like a phoenix from the ashes.  The virginia creeper, completely enveloping what's left of the cherry's main trunk, cascades it's enormous berry covered vines to balance and compliment the taller oak, adding symmetry to this purely natural display.  The immediate area, as well as the fallen primary branches, developed a ground cover of oregano, chives, and creeper as the finishing touch of this masterpiece of nature.

It's not the natural symmetry that amazes me, or the breakdown of organic materials providing new growth, or even that an oak tree is growing in a place where the nearest oak is a quarter mile away.

Although I had the knowledge of how nature works, and how life can be defined as the natural capacity for self perfecting, imminent action.  Today I understand.

All life is perpetual renewal and we're no different from an oak tree.  We all have our pan-dimensional phoenix, ready to rise from the ashes, and the form it will take is beyond any concept of time-space reality we can grasp.

Can the meaning of life be that simple?