The Metaphor Tree

As I walked up to one of my groups, this week, I saw this tree. I instantly had a metaphor pop into my mind. I took one of my students down to look at it... he saw the same metaphor. Since then, I have showed it to several people. They all came up with metaphors of their own but none with the same that my student and I came up with.

What I saw was a tiny seed that fell into a small crack at the top a large boulder. There was no room for the seed to move or grow, yet one day it germinated and began to grow. Days, weeks, and years passed. The tiny seed turned into a small plant and then slowly grew into a tree. Even though the boulder put constant pressure and restriction on the small plant, it grew. The branches lifted towards the heavens and the roots climbed down towards the earth. Eventually, with much patience and small daily changes, the tree was big and strong enough to split the rock that had held it captive. The great pressures of the boulder could not keep the tree from growing and living up to its potential.

People are not unlike that little seed. We all have great potential. We are, however, surrounded by obstacles that would keep us from growing. There are often pressures put on us that restrict what we can do. It sometimes seems impossible for us to break free. However, if we will be patient and sink our roots down towards fertile soil and lift our branches up towards heaven we will grow larger and stronger. Eventually, our strength will be greater than the forces that hold us back and we will split them like that little tree and reach our potential.
Written by Aaron Cluff, DC, MC, ACMHC