Growth

I recently splurged and bought myself a giant canvas painting of a tree.

I had my eye on it for a while, and I decided that it was time to reward myself for starting to take the necessary steps toward self-motivation. Maybe this seems a bit backward, and I really should have waited until I actually accomplished something before I rewarded myself, but I'm telling myself that having this picture in my room will actually help to motivate me.

I was really undecided after I actually went and made the purchase - it was fairly expensive, and even though I loved it I wasn't sure it was going to actually 'go' in my room. But now that it's hanging above my head at night, I feel so wonderful about its presence that I know I made the right decision.

After staring at my tree for what had to have been an hour, I realized that it's a silver leaf maple. This hits close to home - literally. There is a giant silver leaf in the front yard of my parents' house, the house I grew up in. I used to spend hours, days, really, sitting outside in that tree, doing everything from spying on neighbors, to playing a child of the wilderness with my friends, to kissing boys - I loved that tree, and even though I had to help my mom rake the hundreds of thousands of leaves that accumulated every fall, they made the best piles to jump in. If I needed to escape the world and be alone, I always had my tree to sit in.

Trees are amazing motifs. They symbolize life, and the ever-conflicting concepts of staying connected to the earth, rooted in the ground, and branching out, standing tall, reaching for the sky. But perhaps the idea that I connect with most is that of growth. I've always believed that my quest in life as a human on this earth is to learn as much as I can - to grow, and keep growing, no matter how much time goes by or how old I get. I feel as though it is something that many people forget about. They hit a certain point and they plateau, as though  there is nowhere else to go. But one can always keep growing, in all areas of his or her life. And I love that this tree will serve as a constant reminder to me that there will always be more knowledge to reach for - knowledge of the world, knowledge of craft, knowledge of others, knowledge of self. I'm thankful that this silly painting has found its way into my life.