The Healing Tree"Healing" may well be the biggest buzzword of the spiritual growth movement. But what does a healed life really look like? Are we setting out to heal, then heal more, all the way to perfection? No. There comes a time when, as I have often said, you no longer need healing because you realize you were fine all along. It may take quite a while to get to that point, and you may need to revisit areas in times of crisis or loss, but overall, there is an end to the healing phase of life.
I compare it to my favorite tree, a huge oak that lives in the woods behind the fields I walk. From a distance, it looks like any other tree. It's probably thirty-five feet tall, with beautiful foliage at the top. Just like all the other trees near it. Yet at closer look, it is unlike any tree I've ever seen. I was astonished the first time I stumbled upon it. Where it should have taken root in the ground, it instead twisted and curved into an "L" shape. There was at least another ten feet of living tree growing along the ground, with its roots awkwardly planted into a small hill. I can only guess that in its younger years, it somehow took a fall. Yet with enough sunlight and rain, it started growing upwards again. Years later, it was as tall as all the other trees, so it must have also done some catch-up growing.
I remember being dumbstruck by how this tree had come to fit in and yet still be quite different from the other trees. It had a character all its own. Not only that, it had used its early fall to anchor itself; this survivor would never be more than swayed by a storm. Best of all, it had a really neat place for someone like me to curl up and read a book in. That was something none of the other trees could offer. This is me. Yes, I took a fall. Yes, I probably look a little funny in my struggle to twist my life around and grow strong. But now I am strong, and like the crook of that oak's "L", I have comfort to offer those who would curl up and rest against me. Yes, I blend into the crowd, but up close you see I'm not only a survivor, I'm a thriver. Healing, then, is not starting over with everything as good as new. It's using what was given to make me strong, then turning myself upward so I can grow as I was meant to grow. And that growing will continue on it's upward course so long as sunlight, rain and a good solid earth are my companions.
I compare it to my favorite tree, a huge oak that lives in the woods behind the fields I walk. From a distance, it looks like any other tree. It's probably thirty-five feet tall, with beautiful foliage at the top. Just like all the other trees near it. Yet at closer look, it is unlike any tree I've ever seen. I was astonished the first time I stumbled upon it. Where it should have taken root in the ground, it instead twisted and curved into an "L" shape. There was at least another ten feet of living tree growing along the ground, with its roots awkwardly planted into a small hill. I can only guess that in its younger years, it somehow took a fall. Yet with enough sunlight and rain, it started growing upwards again. Years later, it was as tall as all the other trees, so it must have also done some catch-up growing.
I remember being dumbstruck by how this tree had come to fit in and yet still be quite different from the other trees. It had a character all its own. Not only that, it had used its early fall to anchor itself; this survivor would never be more than swayed by a storm. Best of all, it had a really neat place for someone like me to curl up and read a book in. That was something none of the other trees could offer. This is me. Yes, I took a fall. Yes, I probably look a little funny in my struggle to twist my life around and grow strong. But now I am strong, and like the crook of that oak's "L", I have comfort to offer those who would curl up and rest against me. Yes, I blend into the crowd, but up close you see I'm not only a survivor, I'm a thriver. Healing, then, is not starting over with everything as good as new. It's using what was given to make me strong, then turning myself upward so I can grow as I was meant to grow. And that growing will continue on it's upward course so long as sunlight, rain and a good solid earth are my companions.
(Excerpt From Getting Out From Under Depression by Robin Rice; photo is Gnarled by Benjamin Mercer at www.earthshots.org)
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