carefully growing a Bonsai tree.
Over a number of years, the loving
caretaker who grew this bonsai
patiently bent each branch.
It probably
didn't feel good to the tree.
It probably hurt.
The gardener would also bind
certain branches with wire,
or hang a rock from them in order to bend the branches this way or that.
The gardener was kind, observant, and patient.
In it's own way, the tree would communicate it's pain.
A leaf would drop. A branch might die.
The gardener and the tree have a longlasting, on going relationship.
The tree now looks like this because of its natural need to grow, and the gardener's trained eye for how to guide it in a certain direction.
This is the relationship we have with other people, whether we know it or not. One person bends, the other person sheds a leaf, or a tear. Both are changed in the process. We are all, at one time or another, the bonsai or the gardener. Reflect on a time when you were the gardener. Who was the other person?
How did you bend their branches? How are you changed?
