Be like the oak
living up to our potential
Trees don’t have a lot of choices. They grow wherever their seeds land. If the seed happens to land in a fertile spot with the right amount of sun and rain, a tree can grow to majestic heights. If it has the misfortune of landing in poor soil with competition for the sun and insufficient rain, it still grows. It just doesn’t grow as tall, it doesn’t have as many branches, as many leaves, as its brother whose seed landed in more idea conditions. But it still grows and pushes against the limitations put on it. We have so many beautiful trees around the LHH. We’ve had a bit of snow these last few days and the trees take on a magical glow when the snow is in their branches.
Unlike trees, human beings have to choose to reach their full potential. Like the trees, we are not born equal in our abilities, interests, or environments. Within the limitations of fate, we have to choose how far we will push to reach our full potential.
Imagine if an oak could decide not to grow to its potential of a hundred feet or more, but just decided to grow to a mere ten feet. Imagine how strange it would be to stand next to a 50 year old oak tree that was ten feet tall, assuming it had good sunlight, good soil, and all other environmental conditions were optimal. How strange would it be to realize what it could have been had it only chosen to reach for its full potential.
Yet human beings languish in conditions that they should be able to thrive in. Human beings, which are far more complex and have far more potential than any oak, can be so much, even in suboptimal conditions.
We have an obligation to be like the trees, to be like the oak.