Under foot

Street trees have it hard. Literally! They are often surrounded by asphalt or cement, sometimes without any space between the base of their trunk and the pavement. Lucky for them, trees are relentless. Slow, but relentless. Note the sidewalks that are buckling because a tree’s roots just keep growing, no matter what it’s confronted with.

I don’t mean to suggest that this is easy, much less ideal for trees. I’m sure the closeness of industrial compounds make life more difficult. And yet, what options do they have? Of course, they can’t change where they’re growing. So they are forced to make the best of it. Sometimes that means twisting and turning to avoid the obstacle; sometimes it means pushing forward, no matter the resistance.

It seems to me that there’s a story here about perseverance, flexibility, and perhaps also equanimity. When faced with a less-than-ideal situation, which offers no simple or easy alternative, just keep going, working the problem. Grow around it, if you can, or over it. Just keep at it. That’s a part of deal with obstacles: there’s rarely only one way to solve a problem. Worth remembering…