Compromising Plants

Some of the most profound lessons I have learned from nature have come from the plant kingdom.  As I learned more and more about plants I realized their was a lot to learn from them and that they were really quite advanced.  Jane Goodall in her book Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants talks about the plant kingdom and how complex they are and the positive force they can be.  She even relates in her book a story of a friend of hers that composed a song while sitting under a tree.  He then performed that song for a local indigenous tribe.  Afterwards he told them that he felt the song was told to him by the tree he was sitting under at the time.  The tribe told him the location of the exact tree he was referring to.  When the man asks them how they knew they replied that all trees have personalities and they recognized that tree's personality in his song.  

One lesson that plants have taught me that really stays with me his how to compromise and survive adverse forces.  I was standing outside once when I noticed a tree branch blowing in the wind.  I immediately in my head got the sense that the tree branch was trying to teach me something.  It was bending in the wind.  It was going with the wind and being supple and relaxed.  This was helping it to survive the harsh wind.  Had it tried to fight against the wind it could have snapped and broke.  I got the sense that sometimes in life you have to give and be flexible.  If you are too rigid it can actually be detrimental.  To drive this point home as I was walking back to my car after observing this I accidentally stepped on a rigid tree branch and it snapped and broke.  

Also on two different occasions both right before trying times in my life I noticed a tree that had compromised with artificial structures.  The first time was a tree that had grown around a guardrail.  The metal guardrail was actually cutting into this tree but the tree seemed to just keep growing and doing fine.  It had let the guardrail stand and continued doing it's thing.  The second time was a tree and fence.  The tree had grown into the fence so that both structures stood with integrity.  Those of you that watched the TV show Home Improvement may remember the character Wilson sharing a similar story.    

These plants had taught me how to bend and compromise to face adversity in life.  They taught me that sometimes in life you have to concede, sometimes you have to compromise and sometimes you have to stand your ground.  Wisdom is knowing when to do what.