Lesson from the Leaning Trees

Recently I was driving down a road I drive down often and there is an entire section of the road lined with palm trees that are leaning as a result of being blown by the storm, and I was just feeling like “poor trees”…..and then I was struck by something that has really impacted me since then. I think I read a statistic that 70% of the trees in this area were affected by Hurricane Michael…(I know, I know, if I was a truly responsible blogger, I would fact check that statistic, but it’s only for illustration, so bear with me…) So many trees are snapped and broken and dead after the storm…..but there are some, like these palm trees I frequently drive by, that aren’t dead…..they are just leaning. I got to thinking about how nobody told the trees that they weren’t supposed to be leaning that way, that they were supposed to give up after being pushed by the wind into an unnatural position, and so they have just kept growing, even though their new position is different than before the storm. I think it’s possible for them to do this because their root system is deep and they are able to adapt to the new conditions. They will never stand upright as they were before the storm, but that’s not stopping them from continue to grow, as they are.

Last year, many of us got pushed over by the storm, and there have been storms other than Hurricanes in many people’s lives that have pushed us over. But when we have deep roots, and we are willing to adapt to our new conditions, we don’t have to be pushed over….we can continue to grow.

From now on, when I see the leaning trees, I will remember that I have what it takes to keep on growing!