“If you have the chance to examine the cross-section of a tree, you will notice a central core, darker than the sapwood surrounding it. Called heartwood this supporting pillar no longer participates in the life process of a tree, transporting and storing water and nutrients. Although dead, heartwood will not decay or lose its sturdiness while the outer, living rings of newer growth sustain it. In the perfect ecology of a tree, the dead become the heart of the living, and the living nourish the enduring essence of the dead. So it is with our lives, where life and death cannot exist separately from each other.”