I recently met a tree with a story to tell. It had already lived a long life and was yet not done with living. Its roots were gnarled and misshapen, but the trunk stretched upward, straight and longingly towards the sky. Branches lifted to greet the sun each morning and it enjoyed association with like companions on all sides. The tree knew its destiny was to rise above the clamour found upon the ground.
“Unlike you”, the tree said, “I know my direction in life. You race around in circles, looking for miracles, always using someone else’s map….why do you not follow your own path?” he asked me.
I struggled with the answer. “I don’t always know where I am going”, I said. “I just wish to get somewhere better than the place I have started from, and there is no linear path…no straight up for me", I said, tears welling from self pity.
The tree shook its leaves in disbelief and counseled, “You need not make your life a project…just live it to the full and let each single day be your guide. Strip away distractions and what is left is “you”…not what others ‘say about you’ or ‘do to you’ or ‘think of you’….the simple answer is, you will know your way in life if you allow your heart to direct your steps.”
I suddenly realized my direction had been framed in by my personality and driven by my ego. The “past” had trained my habits and wrapped me in a blanket of hurt, mistrust, suspicion and insecurity, pulling me along as does the wake behind a boat. Now I could see the need to follow the wave as it spread to infinity…filling the universe outward. That was to be my way in life.
And so I promised I would no longer censor the navigation from within. I would remove the irrelevant barriers and reach beyond myself to follow my course without reservation.
The tree nodded with approval and all his companions stretched their limbs as if to applaud my decision.
