Find the Light

So, I have been thinking...

Every time I go for a walk with my best friend, we pass a tree. For the longest time, I never said a thing about it, but I always looked at it with incredible curiosity and wonder. 

With a line of trees on one side and the sun beaming in on the other, this tree looks like it is reaching, stretching, and growing with all its might to the openness. It's like the tree knows from its deepest roots to its highest branch that the light is the only way. The tree literally has no life on one side while the other side flourishes. I always feel a tinge of sadness when I see it because I couldn't figure out why part of it could not even grow the tiniest of branches while the other side not only was beautiful but physically looked like it wanted nothing to do with the side in the shade, pulling as far away as it could.

This past weekend, I finally mentioned it to Christel who said, "It's why you don't plant trees next to shade. That tree is pulling toward the light. It's an object lesson if I've ever seen one."

Welp, that stopped me in my tracks. Don't judge on my lack of basic knowledge of trees and/or landscaping. Instead, marvel with me because that's just the most beautiful metaphor for our lives.

So, I have been thinking...

Who is your light? Who is your shade? Who helps you flourish? Who literally keeps you from growing?

In certain times of my life, that tree line full of trees felt appealing. There is safety in numbers or in fitting in. Goodness have I spent too long around people who were tree line people. I knew it all deep down in my heart, too. I couldn't stretch and grow. I couldn't be myself. There was no light giving me life or allowing me to find myself. "If I could just be a little more like this, this person would keep me around. If I just do a little more (read: too much), then I'll be loved." All of that, and I still looked like the right side of that tree--nothing. There was nothing that resembled me. I was completed shaded--void of all light. I had to move my roots away in order to stay standing.

But, friends, we deserve to be the left side of the tree, and it's telling us everything we need to know: You can be strong, weather storms, and flourish when you move towards people who feel like sunshine and light. There are people who are going to sit with you when life feels impossible and overwhelming and not try to fix you but to make sure you feel less alone. There are people who will cheer for you and be your #1 hype person when anything good happens in your life. There are people who are going to give you the hard truth--the necessary truth--because that's going to be what ultimately pushes you to grow far past what you believe you're capable of. These people pull you into the light that's already inside you. They feed and nourish your soul and help you become you. We need to run to this life and these people. We need to fight with every fiber in our being, just like the tree, to spend our days with those who love us exactly as we are and who will move alongside us as we shake off our leaves while we prepare to grow new ones.

I've been told that friendships and relationships in general are like a bouquet--We need all types. It is a beautiful truth, yet it's paramount we feed and care for the ones who do the same for us. This tree is literally stunted on the side where it lives in the shade. Don't waste a minute more moving that way. We get one crack at this life, and it's far too short to spend it with people who don't fill us up. 

So, I've been thinking...

Let's be the person who grows others and who chooses to be around people who do the same. It literally changes everything.