One nice thing I can say about living an empathy’s life is that I’ve gotten to meet and entertain some very powerful personalities. In this I’ve had the opportunity to gather life’s goals from one experience at a time. This collection is constant, I really don’t ever stop, and like all good collections, I can’t view all of it at once, but upon reflection I get new view points of the whole thing and how it all works. Kind of like sitting outside yourself and looking in, seeing how the marble has been cut away or shaped with love or care or hate or lust.
Of these experiences, one has been quite a description that I have had the good chance of sharing with others as well. Hopefully imparting the sheer wisdom, the cunning intelligence that is transferred upon illiciting a response, and the connections that get made in the the others mind.
The story of how two can exist in this world.
Granted some believe that there is a third in any relationship, God or god or the one, the source, the energy that we all are made up of is part of this relationship. Lets take that ever so slightly for granted – especially if you believe we are merely reflections or hosts for that energy, then we are kind of like eyes looking at each other on the face of god. The subject is beholding itself, we can forget about the third party for once, we are all one.
Now, in this idea of two that meet and want to spend the rest of their lives together, we have an idea of independence. Who wants to become dependent? Everyone and no-one. It could be said that the everyone is because all like to be able to lean their head on someone else’s shoulder at least once in their life, to say you don’t means you either have too high of an ideal of yourself or you don’t know how to accept help. No-one really wants to accept help for their entire life though right? They want to see the fruits of their achievements, they want to see the success of their efforts. If you didn’t then you must really not care for yourself or those you say you care about. You wouldn’t want to be the burden that they take on.
So herein lies the first part of this pleasant story about two trees growing in a forest.
The Oak tree and the Maple. These trees might change after I talk to Dendrologist about the various features of said trees, but for now, Oak is strong and hard (male), the Maple… is a pretty name if you could imagine a tree-woman.
These two trees happen to grow from seeds that landed next to one another at the outside skits of a forest. They have rooted themselves, quite unknowingly in the soil or the same system. They have for lack of a better word, been fated together. Some humans follow this same design, others say it is all chance, well, it was chance the seeds landed here, and here we are, they are growing.
As they grow, each tree notices that it must share the sunlight with the other. Taking in too much sunlight means the other will wither and die for lack of energy, such would spoil the soil and honestly, leave the tree that’s left, quite lonely. If they share this light evenly, they will both reap the maximum benefit of its source.
Obviously they both must share the water, otherwise they will grow dry and die. This isn’t such a struggle above ground, but underground we see other things happen. Root structures are like the branch structures funny enough and if you could flip most trees upside down, you would see the roots match the fullness of the branches, regardless of the tree (certainly an average here, but I’ve seen quite a few examples). The roots must not choke the others roots.
What we see if how important space is around the continual growth that happens with any organism. If you don’t give the organism the proper space for it to grow, it will cause it to move to turmoil as it tries to make space for itself.
We have our two main sources for energy and the way for our pair to best use them. The last yet, certainly not least, is the air that these trees take in. This air is all around us, and it would be funny to think that one tree could use up too much of the other tree’s oxygen or CO2, but let’s think about when this source of life is instead a source of death. These trees will have to weather a few storms in their lifetime of living and sharing themselves with each other. If one is taking all of the storm, then it will surely snap or break or be blown over. If one is hiding from the wind, then the other will get the malignant treatment and find it detrimental for certain. It is important that both of these trees share the punishment, yet in their own way, help keep each other standing in the times of trouble.
Thus humans can be seen for the forest.
The lesson is surprisingly simple yet camouflaged in its difficulty. To truly understand is the Tao accordingly what I know, this does mean, I am still learning how all of this applies. The only way I know how to see it better is to one day at a time exercise the skill sets. This one is like those relay races, you get better as your partners get better. In that, we are fortunately trees that can choose where and what we live and grow next to. We are lucky in this.
