
Mother Nature never moves in straight lines. She moves in curves and curlicues. Fact is, I love the many crooked trees that are growing everywhere. They look like they’ve fought for survival in a tough world. Like me. Like you. They grow both up and sideways, twisted and curved from battling the wind, the storms, or a gardener’s pruning shears.
Every time I see crooked roots and branches, I stop and pay attention. Static yet dynamic, fixed but moving every which way, such trees tell their life story. Their presence is a history book, just like ours. They grow upwards, yes, always up, but to the sides as well. “That’s me,” I acknowledge, as I move on.
In fact, maybe that’s all of us — reaching upward, trying to better ourselves and our conditions in many ways as we seek nourishment from above, but often forced to move to one side or another just to survive. We are shaped by our longings, by the facts of our lives, and by the force of the elements, including our own elemental desires.
Why do I think all this is so important? Because our efforts to succeed move us away from being who we truly are. In other words, let’s give up, just for today, insisting on how things OUGHT to be, and embrace how they really are. And how we are. That’s where real life is!
Patty de Llosa, Blogpost, Will We Ever Get It Straight?




