wiggly tree

The other day I was looking at a tree. It was quite a small tree, growing on top of a hill. And this tree was curious. The trunk came out of the ground at a rather alarming angle, not vertical at all. And after a metre and a half or so, the trunk took a turn and went horizontal. Then, quite bizarrely, the trunk curved around 180 degrees, still horizontal, but now growing back in the direction it had come. Then it decided to make a turn upwards, still not vertical but reaching for the sky somewhat. And thus it continued, this trunk, twisting and turning and wriggling its way towards the heavens, never going in one direction for long. And to help this small tree stay up, someone had propped it up at one point, with a forked stick. And somehow, looking at this tree, it reminded me of life.

Our lives, too, are seldom flowing straight. Our lives twist and turn unexpectedly, going in odd directions that we would not have foreseen. And though we, too, may be reaching for the sky, what strange deviations we take along the way. But we should not be sad about this, for it is the apparent randomness of these ambulations that make our life rich, that keep life interesting. It would be a dull world indeed if we all grew straight to the sky, like a commercial forest of conifers – much better that we take our own individual routes.

Every path is a beauty unto itself. Every human journey is to be recognised as something wonderful, never seen before, never to be seen again. And like this small tree that I was gazing upon, we too will eventually reach to the sky. For that little tree was covered in beautiful leaves at its crown. There were none lower down, but there at the top, a beautiful umbrella of vivid green lush leaves. It was as if the whole tree had flowered, eventually.