Trees and People

   Greetings! This one is Akyra. *bows*

   My field is horticulture. In other words, I’m a bona fide plant-geek. I love digging my hands in the dirt and my mind easily finds connections between plants and random everyday interactions. Here’s a place where I can put down some thoughts… connections, if you will. I find curiosity a marvelous thing- and “boredom” a good excuse for letting the mind wander around the world God’s blessed us with.

   God uses symbols in the Bible so many times… a great many of them are desert-based, which makes sense considering the Jews were very much desert people. He tailors stories to fit what the people would connect with- any good teacher understands that to grab a student’s attention, one must capture a part of him. Jesus uses vines (I am the vine, you---know the rest), olive trees (the shoot of Jesse’s stump), sheep (I call, the sheep know My voice), lions (like a roaring lion, seeking to devour), the meager grass on the desert fields (the green pastures… just enough for today), wadi water (unforeseeable danger), living water(safety, healing), honey (God’s provision), and the list goes on and on… If Jesus was such a great story teller while on the earth, Ah! Imagine how wonderful His stories will be in Heaven! :D Hmm… which now brings me to a tree. (… What. You didn’t see a connection there?)

   My head’s been throwing this idea around for a few weeks now – the boredom and sameness walking to and from classes invites wonderful rabbit trails. Trees have been the topic of Landscape Establishment (LEM) class for a while now, and if you think about it, humans are much like trees. We start off as tiny things and grow up to adult height. Many times things go wrong and the tree never makes it to its full potential, either through lifespan or stature. In fact, finding a tree living to its full potential is a lovely and rare sight; yet battered trees live on, doing their best to fulfill their purpose.

   Each type of tree lends itself to a particular growth style (basically: upright, branching, or weeping), just as each person lends to a certain style of ministry or certain personality traits. Upright trees tend toward structure and height, allowing stability and an identifying tower- just like the people deeply grounded in their faith or passion, giving strength and confidence to those around. Branching trees (like Live Oak or Maples) tend to have wide-spreading branches that cover a lot of area. These I associate with the people-lovers. The best place for a country picnic is in a field with a large oak giving ample shade if called upon. The tree just seems to invite crowds to enjoy its shade from the hot sun. Weeping trees are usually small ornamentals like cherry, but some can tower like the weeping willow. I’ve always viewed these soft spoken trees as the quiet ones… perhaps because willows are often found stretching over an inviting stream, perfect for reading a book under its peace. Maybe it’s just because they sound different in the wind- their speech and touch is calming and holds Truth.

   Surely most have heard this oft quoted verse from Proverbs 22: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Certainly there are a number of ways of viewing this, but I’ve heard it said that it can literally say to teach the child “each in his/her own way,” meaning to take into account the interests/personality leanings of the child. I’m not sure how that would fit in the time of its writing, but in my own time I see it like this... If a quiet, “withdrawn” child loves reading, music, art, and tends towards these areas, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to expect this child to become a college football player or a boxer. Not to say that the child shouldn’t be trained in physical activities, but if the general interest is mentally-creative in style, then put emphasis in those areas he is good in. The same could be said for a rough-and-tumble fella who loves sports and working outdoors and “doesn’t have a creative bone in his body.” Putting him in an office job instead of the underground mining company might cause unwarranted restlessness (I have actually met a man who has a passion for working in the mines- and more power to him: I would go crazy in the dark analyzing rocks, just as I would go crazy being stuck in an office cubical.)

   Now, I bring this up because trees also do best in their own choice range of environmental conditions. A silver maple can handle a wide range of conditions- it naturally grows in boggy areas, and so can withstand compacted soil much better than a dogwood. Lace-leaf maples will burn with too much sun exposure, and so require a more shaded spot as secondary forest trees. Planting these trees in their wrong spots can stunt their growth and potential - like the writer/artist forced amidst the football players, or the farm-lover stuck inside an office cubical. Trees are trained by the weather, soil conditions, animals, and also professionally or carelessly by people. Humans are trained by all sorts of things: parents, mentors, friends, and life in general. Training is rarely a welcome experience for us, and if trees could choose, I doubt they would beg for their limbs to be cut off or reshaped. A strong tree has a good branch structure for its own style of growth. trees should be trained to help develop good structure which will help the tree in the long run to be able to hold its own weight and not snap under the stresses of nature when it has reached a mature height.

   A tree can grow co-dominate leaders, which are basically two trunks on one tree (also called double-leaders). Both leaders are competing with each other to be the tallest/best, but this internal war often becomes the weakest point of the tree- breaking at this weak point is common, and the break can strip bark halfway down the tree… the loser isn’t just that branch, but the whole tree. If an upright tree has formed double leaders, the undesirable leader should be pruned out so that the tree will grow to its fullest potential. This can be compared to a human who must choose between two conflicting missions or life paths. One leader must be chosen over the other if the person wants to achieve his highest potential. Depending on the strength and position of the branches, either leader may be acceptable to keep. However, keeping both will make him weaker as time passes; even choosing to remove the stronger leader and keep the weaker would have been better for him than that.

   “Good news from far away is like cold water to the thirsty” –Proverbs 25
   Plant worthy of recognition: Erica x darleyensis, (and other hybrids) "Winter Heath." grown for its evergreen foliage and winter blooms.