A Tree Of Life Is Also A Journey Of Life

I recently had made for myself a small pendant. It only cost forty-nine dollars and it is called a Journey Of Life or a Tree of Life necklace and charm. It is a round circle open holes and it has seven branches extending out to the surrounding gold vermeil border.

I started at the top and put me, Alexandrite for June birthday in the tree branch opening. Then came my husband and his birthday in May-green Emerald. Next came my son and his is also May. Then came my daughter-in-law with March Aquamarine. Then came my two younger grandchildren with light green for August Peridot.The seventh stone was red Ruby for July, our marriage date.

A friend of mine said

“You are doing exactly what a tree of life is. A tree of life is made up of trees and plants and they grow like people do. The root is extended out deeper and further and it solidifies them and makes the tree stronger and allows the tree to continue and grow and flourish.

Without that growth, the tree will eventually wither and die. People are exactly the same. That is what you are doing. You are going to do something new on Saturday, June 9th at the Pikesville Hilton. You are going to ‘view and write’ an article about a dance competition you will watch for many hours. You are writing for the Cockeysville.Patch.com and other sites and with Cockeysville, you have gone deeper and further. What does that do for you? You continue to be stimulated, to grow and to thrive.”

All of us need to thrive, flourish, prosper and grow as the tree does. When we first moved into our first and only house 57 years ago, we had to decide which trees, bushes and flowers we wanted to landscape our outside front and back. My former landlord when I lived at home with Mom and Dad before I was married brought me a small cutting of a Crepe Myrtle bush or tree. It was about sixteen inches tall, if that. It grew and prospered and now it is about six feet tall, all pink flowers about August first of each year. It is like it knows and marks the calendar and on August first, out come the blooms. This year, it may get fooled because of the added day for Leap Year. Then we had a landscaper come out and planted bushes with names I had never heard of and told us some come annually and others are perennials which come once and are gone.

My father-in-law said to me when we planted a Weeping Cherry tree in a space in the front. He said “in ten years it will be so overgrown; it will take up a good part of the front area.” I told him I did not care about ten years from now, I cared about now. Well, ten years came and the tree/bush prospered and filled out and up and around until it was quite a large thing. We had to constantly trim it and sweep away the pink flowers that had dropped to the ground. Eventually, we took down all our trees because it blocked the view of the house in the summer. My husband likes to bend over and pull weeds. He finds it makes the flower beds attractive and he feels the relaxation of getting rid of the monsters that live in weeds that love the Clayman lawn.

So if a tree is a part of a Tree Of Life congregation, we should all get our trees and branches and roots together. Whether it is a small charm with stones representing your family members, or one that had friends in it too, that would be quite charming. It can be a book you put everything down in about these people and events that have shaped your life so far.

We should all gather our happy remembrances and march them to a quiet zone and classify them in a box with separator sections just like you do and did in high school. Friends and or families are our dream in life of having and unlike imaginary friends I had when I was five, they will talk to you, advise you, love you, help you and be there regardless of the age you are now.

Now has become a favorite word of mine. The dictionary meaning is the present time or immediately.

Many young people nowadays need instant gratification and do it and lose some costly time without making much money. They may lose time from college, work or even their health. They may sniff certain ingredients to give them a high. Others do not ruin their lives like that. They follow the right path, go to college, may work part time and get their ‘ highs’ by receiving good marks at college and learn to mature and be strong like the trees.

Eleanor Roosevelt said “The purpose of Life after all, is to love it, to taste experiences and to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences.”

Try to obtain your own Tree Of Life or Journey Of Life, regardless of your ‘now’ age. It is never too late to experience new and rich times and learning something new each and every day will reward you with experiences as you ‘branch’ out, go forward and deepen your ‘roots.’

You can fill your tree whether it is a necklace pendant as I bought or an imaginary tree in your mind or a written picture of a tree with all the branches put down to represent your family, friends or even a stone color for the month you perceived the event. You can wear it as a charm, pendant, and bracelet or even in your thoughts, as it surrounds your memory, your heart and your soul.