Simplifying Midlife: Think Of It As A Tree

When you live in a hollow
In a hole
In a tree,
And the world that you know
Is the world that you see,
And you hear,
And you smell,
And you feel so free.
But yet, still you wonder,
What more could there be.

So you journey.

You travel. You wander. You flee
From the things that you know
And the things that you see,
And all you reject of your life in that tree.
Where the roots sink so deep,
And your dreams fly so free.
Now you’ve crossed the world over
Two times, even three.
But when life brings you back,
You come back to that tree.

What’s this!

“I say this can’t be!”,
You decree.
There is something quite wrong here!
This cannot be my tree!
Why, I left it behind my behind,
Don’t you see?
And I traveled so far.
Check the map. This can’t be!
I’ve grown so much wiser.
This old tree can’t hold me!

And the map smiled (as our inner maps are prone to do),

Just a bit knowingly.
For it knew what you couldn’t
Till you’d gone and returned.
It knew what you didn’t,
What you hadn’t yet learned.
That where ever you travel,
Or wander or flee,
Where ever you go,
And whoever you be,
Whatever your journey, you go inside your tree.

There’s a flexibility to trees we midlife sorts often don’t have. (Trees bend.)

All the places you land
Come full circle, you see.
Just as life comes full circle
For you and for me,
And for all that we know,
And for all that we see,
And we hear,
And we smell,
Is but mapped memory
That daily redraws us in our inner tree.

That means we’re constantly recreating ourselves, and re-emerging. (New.)

You may run.
You may hide.
You may curse what you see
And you hear,
And you smell,
but your tree is your tree.
In a hole in a hollow,
Like no other you’ll find,
Your tree spreads its branches
Your tree shapes your mind.

I’d thank it if I were you. Not everyone has as great a tree as you. (Just a suggestion.)

Keep growing my friend,

Gail

Tagged as: dreams, inner maps, memory, Midlife, tree