"...a tree is never confused."

"...a tree is never confused."
- Botanist David Baker

I listened to two stories today: one was on the radio, the other was over lunch.

Over lunch, I heard a person telling me about the wait they were undergoing for what they have decided is just the right thing to happen for them, the career move they have determined is their one and only perfect path. In spite of the clear progress they are experiencing along other roads they are traveling and the benefits they and their clients are enjoying, they are fixed on this image of how they should contribute in the world. I listened attentively to this person - mostly just listened - since people have to come to their own realizations in their own time, and none of us is without perspective and personal filters.

Often things like this continue to worry me. In spite of what I know works with people, I still want to say, "but look what's being given to you right now!" However, I frequently manage to shut up and listen. (I'm a trained coach, remember?)

Later the same day, I listened to a piece on NPR* about a couple who had built an artists' colony in a woodland portion of Louisiana destroyed by the floods. When they returned to the site, they found devastation and what they took to be an upheaval of the natural order of the forest land. In particular, a magnolia was flowering "at the wrong time." When they expressed the worry to their botanist that the forest was functioning out of its natural order, David Baker told them that "a tree is never confused."

It turns out that the magnolia and other trees were in the process of putting in a rush order for seeds to restore the losses around them. An unplanned restoration to abundant growth is underway.

But not according to plan.

*For more on the NPR report, go to: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5244076