Once, there were two trees. They stood side by side on a wind-blown bluff, high above the sea.
One of the trees was tall, and sturdy, and silent. Its branches were strong, and full of healthy green leaves that painted the skies with white clouds and soaring sea gulls. Its leaves shaded the earth beneath it with vast cool shadows. Birds built nests amongst the limbs of the tree, knowing they were safe from any storm that might bluster through.
The other tree was short and naggly. It always leaned on a 45-degree angle, whether the gales were gusting in or not. Its branches were thin and brittle and twisted. Leaves grew in splotches upon the tree’s arms, offering no protection, or relief, from the ever-changing coastal climate.
Though these two trees were once seeds from the very same acorn and had watched each other grow from saplings, they were as different as any two trees could be.
The naggly tree liked, so very much, the salt-smelling ocean breezes that dampened its bark and tickled its twigs with wisps of mists while the sea tried in vain to cool the hot, inland deserts. The tree would stretch forth towards the shoreline, to gather in all that whistled through.
At night, when the stars shown bright, or when the full moon cast tic-tac-toe shadows beneath its branches, the tree would stare up in wonder, and wish it, too, could touch the sky, like the tree alongside it.
On those special evenings, when the sunset would light the sea on fire, the tree leaned further still, to pay homage to the beauty of another splendorous day.
All in all, the tree loved life. But, still, it paled in comparison to its brother that quietly towered over the tree. The naggly tree wondered why the two had grown so differently. The question began to gnaw at its circles, until the tree was consumed with the unfairness of it all.
Finally, the naggly tree could stand it no longer. It asked the tall sturdy tree why it had grown so high, and massive, while the naggly tree had become so stunted, and gnarled.
The giant, broad tree, soaring above the other, at first, remained quiet. It looked down, with love, upon the naggly tree, so sparse, and so crippled. It knew that the naggly tree loved life, yet felt so inadequate.
At length, the first tree said, “Your branches reflect your roots. Send your roots deep, and watch what happens.” And, that was all the tree said.
The naggly tree thought long and hard about these words, spoken by the tall tree. Finally, the naggly tree decided that the first tree must be right; that this is how life was meant to be lived.
And, so, the naggly tree focused, not on the sea breezes, nor on the stars or moon, nor on the rising sun, with all the beauty these things brought. No, the tree focused on pushing its roots deep, to find its true purpose, and to realize its fullest potential.
Lo, and behold, in time, the naggly tree grew tall, and mighty, like its brother by its side. And the tree found, in its quiet peace, that the ocean breezes still found their way to him, that the moon and stars swayed within its branches, and that the glory of every sunrise illuminated all of what the tree was.
And, in the end, two trees stood, side-by-side, high above the sea; both tall, and sturdy, and silent.
Thanks, Gordy, for teaching me to send my roots deep.