100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 54. Plant A Tree

Or take care of a flower. Do it for at least several months. It will give you a sense of potential. Seeing that tree or that flower growing will make your self-confidence go up. If a flower can make it, why can?t I? Of course you can, now do it!

Taking care of a tree, of a flower, or even of a small garden will instantly extract you from your day to day roller coaster. It’s like creating your own refuge in the middle of the unleashed, noisy and pressuring world.

You will create a parallel world, in which you will have a privileged relationship: you will not talk, but there will be real communication. You will give and receive seamlessly. You will enjoy each other presence without any conditions.

Improving another kind of life, a tree life or a flower life, will silently and unconditionally pay you back. 

How To Plant A Tree

Before going there I want to ask you something very important: have you ever been able to push a tree back into its seed? I know it sounds strange, but think for a while. Ever did that? Or heard about somebody else who did it?

Well, I think the answer will be “no”. And that’s because it’s impossible to push back a tree into its own seed. It will never happen. It’s impossible.

So, the first part of the answer at the question above is: “with great, great care”. Because once planted, once properly taken care of, the tree will grow. It will grow bigger and bigger, day and and day out. It will become a magnificent beauty, offering you its fruits, cooling you down during summer or just embellishing your back yard. Or, it may grow up twisted, mingling with other trees, invading their territory and making a mess of your garden.

Planting a tree is a very complicated thing. I once had a garden, for a couple of years. I planted a few trees there and I was fortunate enough to see them growing a little during those years. Not too much, but enough to realize some very interesting things about this.

First of all, you should pick the land carefully. It should have enough lighting and enough nutrients around. You cannot plant it on a rock. Or somewhere in the shadow. Or you may try, but it will take a lot of time until something will come out of that seed. So, the first condition is to give the proper growth context.

Second, you should plan in advance. When you take that seed into your hand, it looks really, really small. It’s easy to be mislead about that. But once the tree will start to grow, it will expand and expand and keep growing. Don’t plant it very close to other trees or to walls. Don’t plant it very close to roads. Try to imagine how the things will look in 5 or 10 years.

And third, take care about it. Water it, clean the soil, feed it. It won’t grow if you don’t take care of it. Especially in the beginning, when it’s still fragile and any storm could rip it off into pieces. If you planted it, you have to take care of it. Period.

If you do those 3 steps correctly, everything will be just fine.

Now, you know why it’s important to know how to plant a tree? You see where I’m going here?

Well, it’s because each and every thing that’s important in your life will be planted the same way.  Everything, from your career to your personal relationships.

You should plant your relationship, for instance, on good soil. Not on a rock (too inflexible), or in the shadow (unreliable).

Also, you should plan your relationship in advance and with great care. How it will look in 5 or 10 years from now? It will still stand? Or it will interfere with other stuff that you may want to do? Or, even worse, it will grow too much over what you have already?

And last, but not least, keep in mind that any relationship will need care. Even if you created the best condition ever, even if you planned carefully all the stages, nothing will move unless you do.

further reading

7 Things I Learned About Relationships – The Hard Way

Playgrounds And Balloons




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