9 lessons trees can teach you
A few years back we went to visit my son in California and spent time in Yosemite. Besides everything else that makes Yosemite a great place, what’s most abundant and obvious are trees. Majestic, big, small, tall, dead, huge, new, old, very old, and everything in between.
Trees are the tallest free-standing organisms in the world. They live longer and become more massive than any other living thing on earth.
While my husband bravely undertook a 6 mi. trail to see one of the three main grove of trees at the park that included Sequoias, I stayed sitting under the trees. Just being. Observing, absorbing, smelling, feeling, reflecting. . . . What follows are my reflections and observations about trees.
Trees have roots
In the trees I was looking at, the roots were strong and deep. As long as the roots were healthy, the tree was healthy. But an uprooted tree was a dead tree. We needs to be grounded in deep values and ethics if our society is to survive.
2. Trees keep it simple
As long as a tree has what it needs (water, sun, food, space), it gets the business of growing and living done. They don’t seem to need long elaborate meetings and plans. They don’t need long lecture on how to behave. If you give your people what they need, they will get things done without much fuss.
3. Trees have strong trunks
The trunk of a tree is what connects the leafy crown with its roots. It’s the backbone that sustains the branches and leaves. You can identify different trees by the differences their bark, which is the outer covering that protects the tree from weather, disease, insects, fire, and injury.
Regardless of their appearance, the trunk is the inter-connector. Roots absorb water and nutrients from the soil, which are then transported up the tree trunk in cells that act much like pipes. This allows the leaves to obtain water and nutrients that are necessary for the manufacture of food from light energy (photosynthesis). Food made in the leaves is then transported down to the roots and to other parts of the tree for growth.
The leadership of an organization, or the parents in a home, need to be that conduit of life. You should facilitate the interchange of information between all the parts of the organization. You should also protect your people from internal and external threats. Yet, you also need the information that every member of the organization brings. If you stop listening to others, it’s as if the tree were refusing to take the food made in the leaves. We need each other for the growth and health of all.
4. Trees collaborate
Roots and leaves don’t complain about each other. Branches don’t decide to exclude the trunk from meetings. Every part of a tree does their job well. The work of all individual parts make a whole tree healthy and keeps it growing. When every individual works on what they can do best, and do their job well, good things will happen.
5. Trees bend with the wind
The living structure of trees combines both strength and flexibility. Because trees bend with the wind, instead of trying to resist it, they survive many storms without snapping. Their branches sway in the wind and bend when loaded with snow or ice. You don’t need to get bent out of shape about turbulences of conflict or change. Work with the energy, instead of against it, and it will make you stronger.
6. Trees change, and survive
They not only deal with four seasons, they deal with drought, overcrowding, under-crowding, global warming, people, bugs, animals, and whatever else gets thrown at them. Good businesses and good families do this too (well, maybe not bugs and animals, but you get the point). If you don't do well with change, you are in danger of not staying around too long.You can involve everybody in surviving and thriving.
7. Trees grow best together
Although there are some lone trees out there, they work better together, in groups, in the form of a grove or a forest. They must compete with other plants from their own and different species for space, water, nutrients and light. What makes it grow tall and strong is competing for light as they grow to hold their leaves above other plants and shade them out.
Together they also weather storms easier and protect each other. At work or at home working together make things easier. Trying to “shine” as a loner is risky and often leads to death. Leaving people out of your plans is not a good idea. There is strength in numbers. And in the variety of a “forest” every different person has a place and a job that will serve the wellbeing of all.
8. Trees are welcoming and non-critical
Trees welcome all creatures to rest under their shade. No matter how much the inhabitants of the tree mess with its branches or the visitors on the ground under them, the tree does not cry or complain or worry. It knows that such messes become fertilizer in the ground, making the tree healthy and strong. Likewise, if you want to be effective, don’t lament the mistakes of others because the negative experiences can be used to make them stronger. You can welcome feedback and innovation knowing that, even what seems messy, can be healthy.
Family life can be messy, but is what fertilizes the new lives being nurtured. Your relationships can grow stronger by being more positive than critical and by letting your family enjoy your company.
9. Trees are giving
By taking in toxins and giving back oxygen, trees are always contributing to life. They also give seeds, shade and cool. They give energy. They give life. Even after dead they contribute generously to many industries, to art, and to comfort. You should serve and give. Don’t just take and hoard. Even if your own plans “died,” many time they can serve as the seed for other ideas that will work even better.
Remember. . .
Be grounded like a tree, yet stand tall to look out as a visionary. Be strong like a trunk, yet bend with flexibility. Be willing to stand alone if needed, but collaborate with those around you to become stronger together. Welcome challenges and people, growing stronger with the different experiences. Above all, serve others and give the best of yourself, and you will contribute to the health of your organization, your family, and your country.
P.S.
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