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Can’t see the forest for the baobab trees

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Baobab Trees, Senegal, May 2014

I don’t have much to say today. It’s a sad, bad day and I’m tired and scared and in shock. I’ve been avoiding the news and social media.

I set a goal for this month to help me start writing again. I’m trying to post a photo and write a couple hundred words on this blog every weekday in November. Today is a weekday — a sad, bad, weekday — but a weekday nonetheless, so, here I am, writing a post about baobab trees.

The thing that struck me most about baobab trees was how solitary they are. The climate they live in is dry and their root systems are huge so they need lots of personal space. But the part of Senegal I saw them in was also flat so, when you looked out across the landscape, you could see baobabs trees way off in the distance. All lined up on the horizon, they looked like a forest, but if you walked toward any individual tree, it would be alone.

I feel like there’s a metaphor here, but I’m not sure what it is.

Anyway, trying to keep up with my own personal goals and projects is the best I can do today. I’ll try to do better tomorrow.

Emma Holliday is well-traveled. After 5 years in Boston, she and her husband upended their lives to move to Berlin where she is currently writing a (funny) book about travel and grief and attempting to learn German.

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