I had told my gardener to water the newly bought plants abundantly and to use the manure generously, but when the saplings did not thrive and were getting uprooted even under light rain and wind and I was very disappointed.
But what my gardener told me was so full of practicality and wisdom: “If we give everything that the plants need so easily, why will their roots go deeper in search of nourishment from the soil. Every small breeze and every little rain will pose a threat in such a condition!”
How true! I started taking his experience as a guidepost since then. I realised that the same analogy could be applied with regard to our children’s upbringing. We must allow their roots to go deeper instead of allowing to depend on external nourishment always.
If we extend this equation further, we can see how trees set an example to humans beings in life and living. It seems, when the roots of different trees come in contact underground, there is a fungus-like substance present within them that reduces competition between themselves. In fact, this unknown fungus helps link roots of different trees, even of dissimilar species.
A whole forest may be linked together this way. If one tree has access to water, another to nutrients, and a third to sunlight, the trees have a means to share with one another. No tree will be deprived of anything that could help their sustenance. Like trees in a forest, if men could stand and support one another at root level, what a beautiful garden the whole world will turn out to be.
There are further lessons which put trees on a higher pedestal. Trees teach us to stay grounded, they teach us to turn a new leaf, they teach us to bend not break, they teach us to stay connected with our roots and they teach us to provide cool shade to others.
Trees must be respected from their very seed stage — down to the last detail of leaf, branch and trunk, the whole tree is contained in a dormant stage in the seed. How, with the application of time and alchemical process of photosynthesis, it blends the energies of sunlight, water and minerals into the growth process and it unfolds into a huge tree from a tiny seed is a wonderful analogy for us to blossom in a wholesome way. This should help us give love, which we are inherently filled with, to become a potent positive force in the world. But if we choose to become otherwise, even the creator cannot help.