…the tree: in five parts (5)

41.

Part 5

Growth of the whole

‘Most trees have spurts of growth to coincide with favourable climatic conditions. Typically, growth will stop when the weather becomes too cold or dry and the tree will enter an inactive period.  During this time, buds are formed to protect the tree’s internal tissues, and once favourable conditions return, growth will recommence and an expanding shoot will push out of the bud – forming new leaves and branches.’

You want to uncover the truth of the body, the mind and the soul, so you cut your thoughts into neat segments, parts 1 through to 5.  You catalogue, pinning these fragments to the board of your screen in the belief that separating the disparate clutter of your self will identify the core.

It takes time for you to realise that truth does not arrive in separate pieces, and however neat the display there will always be more lingering just out of sight, and more, and more.  And what of the unpinnable?  The unclassifiable?

And so you step back to look at this tree you’ve curated.  The roots, the bark, the sap, the crown.

A further step back to see the forest and the animals, the countryside and the cities, the land and the sea, the earth and the sky, the Earth and the Universe.

And there you find harmony in the whole, growth blossoming as favourable conditions return. 

(Tree quote sources from Resource Library at International Timber)