Some thoughts from St Francis de Sales, who lived in the beautiful French town of Annecy, on the soft approach we should take toward challenges and towards ourselves:
When you encounter difficulties and contradictions,
do not try to break them,
but bend them with gentleness and time
St Francis de Sales
photo of tree in County Clare by Maureen
Mindfulbalance 
Interesting, I have been thinking of writing a similar post for a tree I have a photo of.
Lovely tree, lovely words.
This is especially true for those contradictions I find within myself