Lessons from a Tree

Bloom fully and with intention
Know each season, and live it with a healthy dose of abandon
know when to hold on and when to let go
Squirrels will take from you with or without your approval. Let them. They will help share your seed.
Give shade – there are those who need you
Bend with the wind
Cherish and honor your roots, no matter how tangled. Without them, you would not be here today.
Grow deep roots, but reach high and wide. It is possible.

Lately, I have been noticing living things around me. Even those silent, still things – the ones I had not realized were around. There is a tree, just outside our apartment, that defies natural law. As the winter chill came in, even the most stubborn of leaves finally detached, and returned from where they came. But this tree decided to hold on to its leaves. Dead and unresponsive, what a struggle it must be to keep holding on to something so ripe to depart. So, as its top branch tips congeal, its bottom branches prefer to believe summer, or at least spring is around the bend. How difficult it must be to outsmart seasons; to wish for something impossible; to hold on to something dear and gone. How this tree sticks out, in a very odd way. Every morning, I check on this tree like an old friend. Observing, wondering when the time will feel right, and the leaves will drop, and imagine the tree’s joy in discovering there is beauty in being bare, and alone; there is still love where the leaves lived last.