This is a beautiful old oak tree that I met recently on a trip to Petaluma, California. It is lovingly regarded at a retreat center there. At some point it had fallen over in a storm and yet it continues to grow. It's beautiful and I found myself drawn to it. If I'd been there alone, I would have been tempted to climb on one of the lower branches with a book and a soda and luxuriate through the day. How wonderful it would have been to have a tree like that as a child and spending the day with it as one would a precious friend.
It wasn't just the size of the tree, or it's imaginary play potential that I found irresistible. I felt a connection to its message of thriving and overcoming. I mean, that tree was growing as magnificently as can be prior to the storm that caused it horizontal direction of growth. It was doing what every tree is made to do -- grow tall and full and glorious. I just bet that everyone expected that tree to give up and die.
Instead it gracefully took it's change in direction in stride and continued being glorious. That tree isn't just a survivor, it's a glorious conquerer of with winds of chain, the storms that life eventually brings. The older I get the worse I am about change, but this bold and beautiful tree gives me courage to continue to fully live. Those lessons of encouragement are all around us if we just pay attention.
No comments:
Post a Comment