The overcoming resilience

 

During a visit to a historic place recently, I noticed that two which trees cut,  were sprouting again. 

In the Book, The Gardener, a Spanish best seller, the author Grain, who published two other books, Beyond the rainbow and the Path of Life,  narrated  story of a gardener, who noticed a recently cut olive tree in the hills. 'Grieving over the lack of sensitivity of the tree's owner capable of cutting off in an instant the life of a tree, many centuries older than himself, the gardener sat down on a rock, remembering the powerful aspect of the tree, swaying in the wind with its silvery leaves'! (p44).

When he visited the hills sometime later, noticed new shoots in the stump, growing vigorously upwards. 

'Stroking the tender shoots of the old live, he whispered: there exists a stronger will that that of man! Who, old live tree, can triumph over the will power and desire to live'!

Seeing the two trees cut with new shoots growing out of them in the photos above, I recalled the above story, narrated by a trained psychologist with profuse involvement in music and theatre in the book, The gardener.

What captured my attention while walking in the woods, was the river at the edge of the property, winding its way all along the boundary of this property. Although the forty feet wide river looked shrunk to look like a stream in summer, it is an overflowing river during monsoon months, but not flooding, where people gather to fish and have picnics at the river bed. 

The above trees would have roots spreading in the subsoil to distant places to find their nutrients. 

To my surprise I noticed the roots of a small uprooted tree in the wooded area, which fascinated me. The root system looked larger in bulk than the trunk itself.  

The roots steady a tree and allow it to grow and sprout again when the stem is cut. The teak trees which were cut in our garden, have new shoots sprouting from the stem. 

This is precisely the reason why there is lot of attention needed for children in the early years of their childhood to have rootedness in the family ambience to feel emotionally secure, feel loved, protected and provided for and grow up with an inner readiness to grow, live,  relate and become their beings. When they experience the rootedness in a loving and affirming family, they grow up with fulfilling attachment behaviour that would steady them during troubled times and story scenes of life. On such occasions they feel protected from post traumatic stress, due the inner resilience that hey have grown up with,  to develop the emotional quotient arising out of rootedness in the family, experiencing sense of belonging and flourishing relationship. 

The trees have resilience to return to life! Humans too have such strength to overcome! 

For that to be a reality, the pre-school period is to be years of experiencing rootedness in the soil of an affirming family ambience!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)