Such odd growth occurs everywhere. A sweeping glance tells us that Nature is perfect, but closer inspection reveals that she is not. Or perhaps she is, but it is only that she does not meet our expectations and so we deem her creations imperfect. There is not one of us who is perfect, and each of us bears many scars--some seen but most unseen. Like this tree, each one of us has callouses built up around attempted growth, failure, cuts, sickness, and sorrow. Like this tree, each of us has hardened knots and growth that snakes in odd directions, which we try to hide, even from ourselves.
But unlike this tree, most of us do not show our
imperfections. We hide them and gloss
them over and place distractions in front of them. All the while we are hoping that no one sees
our deformities, that no one sees how we tried and failed, that no one notices
our weak spots. We play a game of
pretend with everyone, especially ourselves.
No one must know of our defeats.
 |
| A tangled mass of scar tissue on the tree. |
Yet our defeats have their own faces, even as this tree
does. Look carefully at the tangled knot
and you will see the face. You will see
the pain. It’s okay to see it, and the
tree doesn’t mind. The tree says, “Yes,
this was where I tried to grow toward the east but suffered tragedy and
illness. How lucky I am to have learned
such a valuable lesson! It saved me
heartache when next I tried to grow toward the west. Life is glorious!”
We can do the same.
We can say, “Yes, this is where I had a C-section. This is where I took some shrapnel in the
war. This is where the ball hit me and
took my eye.” Or maybe we could go
deeper to our hearts and say, “Yes, this is where I lost my wife because of
what I did. This is where my mother
died. This is what happened when I lost
my career.” Or could we go even deeper
into our souls? Could we say, “Yes, this
is where I lost my faith. This is where
I killed my dreams. This is where I met
the dark one, and this is what I did.”
Could we do that?
Could we be as brave as a tree?
