While learing about the masting process in trees, I got to thinking about one of the multiple hypotheses that I came across regarding the "why" of masting: that the trees need time to regenerate in between bouts of highly abundant fruit/nut production. It's almost as if the trees are saying "We can't be "on" all the time... we need a little down time."
Time to recharge, and time to grow. Think of it as "me" time for the trees.
Similarly, we need times like this in human terms. Time to ourselves, time to recharge our batteries, time to tend to personal growth. There are times to rest, and times to flourish. We cannot expect to give continuously of ourselves without wearing thin, wearing out. The trees know it - why don't we?
We've heard all this before... from self-help books, from Oprah and Dr. Phil, from therapists. But maybe we would be better off to let nature teach it to us. To observe her cycles and rhythms, and to learn how to honor them and incorporate them into our own lives.
"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe." -John Muir
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