The picture ( see below) is of a tree in Bishopdale, North Yorkshire. Its root is wrapped around the girth of the huge rock beneath it. On closer inspection it can be seen that the tree is growing out of a crevice in the side of the rock, a crevice too constricted to support the life of the tree, so by some natural miraculous process the tree has sent a root right around the rock in search of the soil. At some unseen point in time a seed must have found its way into that narrow crevice and there sprouted in sufficient soil to make a start. I think this tree is beautiful, it is a healthy and strong tree and it has grown this way against the odds.
Seeing this splendid tree reminded me of a homely saying I once heard, ‘bloom where you are planted.’
I say it is homely because there is no great philosophy in this although there is wisdom and the start of a conversation. If you have ever seen a little plant growing out of an old wall, or grass growing in a guttering, you will have seen a less spectacular example of this saying. I take ‘bloom where you are planted’ to mean that you should make the best of the situation that you find yourself in rather than merely lamenting your lot.
Despite recognising in a slightly self-righteous way that many people I have known would benefit from heeding this saying I also recognise that I have always struggled to make my present life circumstances the focus of all my attention and endeavour. If I were that tree I would have been looking to the other side of the path, or the other side of the valley, or over the moor to find the place where I may grow beautiful and strong.
Trees are of course more rooted than human beings, but it could have given up given a will.
There’s nothing wrong with dreaming, but still you have to ‘bloom where you are planted.’ Is your dream of being strong and beautiful if only you were planted elsewhere preventing you being strong and beautiful where you are?
When we despair of ever being able to thrive in our present circumstances we often long for escape or rescue, as the Psalmist prays in Psalm 61,
‘From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.’
‘…the rock that is higher than I’, a place of escape, a place of safety where we may thrive. The Psalms identify God as the rock of salvation, but we don’t have to understand the rock of salvation as God to long for such a place, are you awaiting a hero? A romance? A new job? The right set of friends? An ideological new dawn? A religious revival? Botox? Oh set me on the rock that is higher than I!
When I look back the greatest times of personal growth in my life have come when I have embraced/wrestled with the hard circumstances of my life, then I have after a struggle found myself lifted up on the rock that is higher than I.
I had walked by many other trees that day without stopping to consider them. This tree was remarkable because of the rock, the very thing that had challenged its existence. The rock had become a fundamental part of the identity of this tree despite/because it had threatened its existence, the particular beauty of the tree, and the inspirational quality, would not have been there but for the uncompromising nature of that rock.
This was a special tree.
A miraculous tree in the true sense of the word ‘miracle’ – a sign and a wonder.
A tree with which you could converse.
A tree that would have been poorer for not having been born in the narrow crevice of a rock.
Blooming may well involve embracing the hard circumstances in which you have been planted, and even finding in them a strength and a support, just as this tree had embraced and grown on the rock.
As the Psalmist asks in Psalm 18 ‘who is the rock if not our God?’
And Psalm 18,
‘The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.’
Postscript. In sweeping away the gods and sprites of field and fell Western Christian culture despiritualised the landscape. My aim is to respriritualise the landscape. Creation is not commonplace. Creation is holy. When I go for a walk William Blake comes with me to point out the angels that I otherwise might miss.
November 2017
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