Look To the Trees
Nature can teach us so much about enduring hard times. Today, our listener Amelia shares one of her favorite nature metaphors for riding the waves of life.
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If you have anxiety, depression or any sense of the world around you, you know that not *everything* is going to be okay. In fact, many things aren’t okay and never will be! But instead of falling into the pit of despair, we’re bringing you a little OK for your day. Every weekday, we’ll bring you one okay thing to help you start, end or endure your day with the opposite of a doom scroll.
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The IGTBO team is Nora McInerny, Claire McInerny, Marcel Malekebu, Amanda Romani Grace Barry and Michelle Plantan.
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The transcript for this episode can be found here.
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Transcripts may not appear in their final version and are subject to change.
Amelia: Hi, Nora. My name is Amelia Daniels, and I am a fellow Twin Cities girl now living in Wisconsin. My it's going to be okay submission brings me back 35 years to my freshman year of college. My English Symposium class was titled Philosophies of Life. We explored a variety of perspectives on life through reading and writing.
1 of the books we read was Anne Morrow Lindbergh's compilation of essays titled Gift from the Sea. Anne had taken to the sea as a pause in her very busy life, realizing the need for time in nature to rest and to recharge. By taking shells on the beach as inspiration, she compares stages of her life to the unique composition and characteristics of the shells she collects. The swirl pattern of the moonshell represents the inward journey we are all on to Rediscover the core of who we are or the small simple pear shape of the channel whelk shell mirrors a simple dwelling or living a simplified life. So our writing assignment was to compare our life or an aspect of our life to something in nature.
I struggled to find it, possibly trying too hard to be like Anne in my attempts to find something that I could hold in my hand or that would sit on my desk as I recognized our oneness. I shifted my gaze from the ground to the sky, and there I was, a tree. Ever since I was little, I've been a noticer of trees, hugging them, drawing them, climbing them, or just gazing at them. I love watching them transform with each season. And so began my paper with these words.
I am like a tree reaching and changing with each new phase of life I grow. Now nothing could be more true from the time I was born to the time I wrote that paper to where I am now in my life of 54 years. But how do the trees tell me it's going to be okay? Well, they are a constant reminder that there will be seasons. Fall will bring obvious external changes to the tree and an even more noticeable letting go of what was.
By this, I am reassured that change can be beautiful, and it is inevitable. So perhaps surrender is a way to trust that something good can come from it. Winter comes and the tree will look barren, but beneath the surface, so much is happening that is invisible to the eye. The unseen quiet changes are what will sustain the tree and prepare it for what is next. The tree is able to withstand the cold nights and a harsh wind, and so can I?
Spring brings melting and movement and a bursting of new growth. The tree teeming with life wakes me up to what is being born, and I can feel hopeful for what I can bring forth in my life. In summer, the tree abounds with flowers and fruits blooming, birds singing, and a canopy of leaves reaching toward the sky. This is a sign of the joy and colorful sweetness I have felt and can feel again and again. So look to the trees, Find 1 that is you and watch it in awe because you are strong, resilient, beautiful, and it's going to be okay.