My Tree of Life

When I think about my life I try to imagine it as a mosaic made up of many different characteristics, each with a different personality and purpose.  I try to imagine my mosaic forming a picture, maybe a professional athlete or a logger.  I mean, who doesn't want to be a logger?

Oddly enough, though, my mosaic ends up looking less like a logger and more like a tree.  I can't explain it but I can tell you one thing, I've never been so grateful for the spotted owl.  

In my case, my tree starts from hope.  I think most peoples' trees start with hope but sometimes they try to replace hope with something like ambition or desire.  While those can be good, I'm not sure they offer enough strength to make it through all that life can bring.  Hope is the best for me anyway.

The best parts of my life are derived from hope.  I'll try to explain it but please remember that I'm a very simple person and therefore I don't really have the right words to describe the tree that I imagine in my mind.  That being said, I'll do my best to do it justice.

Hope gave me adventure.  From adventure I have gained the ability to imagine entirely different worlds and to see this world, not as it is, but as it can be.  Like most adventures, mine is unpredictable and often hard to understand in the moment.  Only when looking back can I fully grasp the incredible experiences and knowledge  I have gained from adventure.  Adventure gives my tree variety and originality.  I am always proud to go along with the adventure that has come to me.

Hope gave me courage.  When I imagine all of the wonderful things in life that I may never be able to experience, courage shows me that nothing is impossible.  Going through life is confusing and everything I do seems to only make things more difficult.  Although my best efforts are never enough and misunderstanding hampers the way, courage moves me forward and makes me do my best anyway.  Courage can make it through the darkest times where nothing makes sense and desperately grasping for safety appears to others as defiance and ingratitude.  Yet after the trials, courage makes you forget the hard times and cherish the blessings that are gained.

Hope gave me joy.  Joy is the heart of all good things.  There is no unhappiness that joy can't overcome and even when negativity fills my thoughts I can always remember my joy.  Joy makes me want to be a better person and look for the good in everyone and everything.  Joy is a kindred spirit to hope and they often go hand in hand.  I am thrilled when an expression of my joy can bring happiness to others, although I'm often reluctant to share. 

Anything is possible when adventure, courage and joy go together.  Like a great paradox, they bring me stress and peace, anxiety and exhilaration.  Adventure usually leads the way, with courage and joy following closely behind.  Although, sometimes it seems that they are all going in different directions.  Adventure takes me to the brink of my sanity, courage runs away and joy fades into gloom.  But they are all guided by the same hope and we all manage to come together at the end of the day.

I wake up every morning with hope, and hope calls to me throughout the day, to beckon me onward and give me strength.  Every day ends with hope and I look forward to the next day being even better than the last.  I can't imagine it any other way.  They say that "hope springs eternal."  Well, I don't really know what that means.  I do know, however, that I look forward to the eternities with hope.

My hope, adventure, courage and joy make my life wonderful.   That is adventure spelled with an 'S', courage spelled with a 'J', joy spelled with an 'E' and, of course, hope spelled with an 'M'.  I'm sure I haven't described them the way I picture them in my mind but maybe you are lucky enough to have your own tree that you can envision.  Maybe you have grafted a part into your tree that wouldn't have normally been there.  Once the branch takes hold, it's all the same tree.

Or, then again, maybe you imagine your life's mosaic as a logger. In which case I'm sorry, I just don't have a good analogy for that.