"We Are All Like Trees."
I'll never forget how her face lit up when she said these words. I was in South Africa, Kuma, South Africa, in fact. I was teaching in a classroom of South African teenagers, and I was on cloud nine, (naw ....101..)
Her words were so simple and freeing.
Powerful, yet pensive, contemplative yet colorful. Description causes me to attach meaning to sometimes things I barely notice. I know I'd always loved trees. Yet the trees in South Africa spoke to me. I remember having spoke to this classroom brill of teenagers and then coming back to a Johannesburg and spending time with my new friends and their friends. I stood quietly in the backyard just thanking God for the experience of being in a South Africa, eating dinner with such focused and thoughtful people. There was a tree in that backyard that spoke to me.
Inlistened to her words all over again: "We are all like trees."
And then it hit me: Our strength. Our endurance. The people we are, and continue to become. We dream, we hope, we encourage , we teach.
And yes, I am one of those Trees.
Yes indeed I am.