Trees can teach us…
We can find lessons everywhere, and Mother Nature is a wonderous source!
Being like a tree means…
reaching for the sky and rooting down deep.
The deepest tree’s roots have a reported depth of 400 feet. It’s a Wild Fig tree at Echo Caves in South Africa.
On the other hand, there are those tall redwoods…
And, having lived on the Pacific Coast, I know that redwoods (some more than 2200 years old and towering over 300 feet tall!) have remarkably shallow roots reaching only 6-12 feet deep into the soil. Two things hold these magnificent trees upright in the harsh winds of the coastal climate:
- their roots stretch out fifty feet in all directions to give them stability
- and they grow together in groves so their roots intertwine and support each other.
We too need our connections with others as we support each other. As individuals and as communities, we share creative ways of growing regardless of the challenges we come up against in our environments. Whether we are dealing with illness, relationship turmoil, loss or any of the myriad of human trials, we need each other.
Trees will even grow through rock. And we are similarly resilient, finding creative ways around the obstacles we confront as we move along our paths.
We are part of Mother Nature. We grow from birth to death just as the rest of nature. The changes from season to season, with the blooms of spring, the fullness of summer, the shedding of the colorful leaves of fall and the bare branches in winter are also reflected in the changing seasons of our lives.
And one, perhaps unexpected, lesson!?
