The Perseverance of Trees

I was watching ‘Man in the Wilderness’ with Richard Harris this afternoon – after splinting a little snow hare’s broken leg (instead of eating it) he then read this bit out of the bible (Job 14: 7-9)

A tree hath hope: if it be cut, it groweth green again, and the boughs thereof sprout.

If its root be old in the earth, and its stock be dead in the dust:

At the scent of water, it shall spring, and bring forth leaves, as when it was first planted.

The indomitable spirit of perseverance is in us all .. too often it disappears due to things which seem to happen to us for no reason.

Instead of trusting that there was a reason we fight against whatever it was and seek to explain the logic of it.  There is very little logic in many things and the only logical way to deal with it is to accept the fact that it just is.

The only job you have to do is learn what part you had to play in the situation.  It might have been a thought, a belief, an action – it could be that you needed to learn a lesson.

It will never be someone else’s fault.  That doesn’t mean that you are to blame, but it does mean you have to take responsibility.

Things happen to us when we are children and don’t know any better.  This can have an effect on our lives – how we cope, how we survive, how we love.  As children we don’t have the languaging skills of an adult, we don’t have the mental, emotional or physical capacities of an adult.

As children we are pretty defenceless.  Frightening as it is, I believe that we come into this world with an in-built ability to cope with whatever is given to us.

At some point in our adult lives we will have the opportunity to put our childhood experiences behind us by being able to look at them through adult eyes and gain a different perspective.  That, together with a willingness to forgive, a willingness to learn what you didn’t know then and the willingness to let go of your past hurt allows you to start to blossom and grow new branches, new shoots, new leaves and live a new life.

What have you learned from this post?