I have never pulled a weed in my life and today I couldn’t believe it when the lady at Sebo’s swiped my card for a tarp and rain gear. Life seems to take us in directions we could have never foreseen. However, the one thing I’ve learned along these surprising twists and turns is to seek the lessons on these unexpected stops. I am no where near a professional gardener but in my opinion, God made plants a lot like people.
Yesterday, when I was replanting a tree, my boss instructed me to be gentle with the soil above the roots. “Most people think that plants breathe through their leaves but they actually breathe through their roots....” she said. Glancing beyond the Forsythia tree and fixing my eyes on the spot where the sun reflected against the angry churning Puget Sound, I thought to myself...”I have been trying to get through life breathing through my leaves but I actually breathe through my roots too.” We all do.
Some people’s roots make it hard for them to breathe and some people’s roots enable them to become a tall standing tree with branches bravely reaching high. For the first time in my life, my roots look like they are coming to the surface. For the first time...I can see them plainly. Until recently, I have kept them tightly packed and buried and I was trying to breathe through my leaves that everyone could see. It seems the more soil I uncover, the more I find roots which are twisted and curled. My roots were going off in a direction of their own. Some of the roots were influencing my branches to face toward the shade and some of them are the source of my greatest strength.
I got up off my knees to admire this Forsythia tree. As I stood back, it was easy to see that it wasn’t perfect but it was beautifully unique and the roots are the start of it’s beauty. I’ll never understand how warped roots can sustain such a good thing but I am thankful that the most lovely things in life are originate from a place of depth and growth.
