Pines and Palms

Once there was a lonely palm tree along a stretch of beach. Its fronds grew high up into the salty breeze and its roots nestled deep within the warm sand. It brought shade to the lizards below and a perch for the seagulls above, but from time to time, the harsh winds blew and the high seas grew leaving the palm tree battered left and right. Bent to its absolute limits, it held on for dear life until the storms would pass and the tides would retreat, so that it could remain that palm along the beach with its fronds in the breeze and its roots within the sand.

Once there was a pine tree high up in the mountains. Its needles grew lush and bright green in the crisp alpine air and its roots were snug tightly within the rocky landscape. It was shelter for the critters below and a home for the birds above, but from time to time, the temperatures dropped and the animals would stop, leaving the pine tree cold and alone. Blanketed in snow, it held on for dear life until the snow would melt and the animals would return, so that it could remain that pine high up in the mountains.

You may be able to plant roots in the sand or the soil, but will you make it through the fierce storms or the harsh blizzards? A tree doesn’t grow where it wants to thrive, it simply thrives where it is able to grow, so a pine tree doesn’t wish to be next to the beach, nor a palm tree beside the mountains. A pine tree will break from the hurricanes and the palm will freeze from the winters. Each wouldn’t trade the fate of the other, each within their preferred conditions, each to deal with the best and worst of their environments. They stay still and remain resilient against the worst their environment has to offer, so that they may remain amongst the best their environment has to offer.

Although a human’s life is not as simple as a tree, nor a tree as complex and adaptable as our species, but how well are you suited for the environment you want to exist in depends on how well you can wade out the storms. Are our frustrations about the hurricane force winds and floods or the harsh winters and rocky terrain? How might we come to accept the innate conditions that come with the experience of being a palm or pine tree?

Does your work thrive when you are in large groups or isolated and alone? Are you’re desired outcomes validated based on empathy, skills, independence, wisdom, creativity, etc.? How much or how little you posses of each of these really depends on how well suited you are for that environment. So, are you a pine wanting to be a palm, or a palm wanting to be a pine? Instead of wanting and wishing that you were one wanting to be the other, stay where you can grow and be that tree for the environment around you. Build the community that others wish to be a part of.

-Busy Brain