Silver Linings

The silvery tree discovered on an early November morning.

Silver Linings

The dim light of early morning was interrupted by the silvery frame of an almost leafless tree standing alone in the center of a green-space island.  Its bright-white-outline captured my sight immediately.  But, the striking color of the trunk and branches weren’t what kept my interest riveted there.

My eyes followed the arching curve of the tree’s life-story telling, gnarly branches.  “This tree has been through a lot!”  I thought as I studied its unique, illuminous shape.  “Yet, it maintains a striking stature and color.  It depicts the living of life focused on silver linings.”

Its silvery color causes it stand out from the trees in the small forest just across the road.  At one time there were also likely other trees surrounding this iconic tree.  That was before the business park, in which it now lives, was constructed.  Those other trees as all gone, but this one was deemed special, different from the others.  So, it was preserved, I imagine.  It is a piece of living art.

The art of living is something I think about a lot.  Because, a human life, like the life of a tree can take all types of twists and turns.  And, the way a person perceives his or her own storyline is what yields the possibility of turning the commonplace into something of striking beauty or ugliness. It is a comparative story of how one chooses between artfully living a life filled with silver linings, or living a dreary existence as though sentenced to a life filled with sadness and despair.  It is a decision of branching and trajectory.

The measure of a full tree, just like one’s life, can’t be wholly viewed by looking at one single branch.  It must be taken in, whole.  That’s not always easy when life gets busy and you lose your focus on who you want to be.  To do so one must take the time to step out of the current circumstance, once in a while, and complete the exercise of viewing one’s life in its entirety; as if it is a story being acted out in front of an observer.  If done, you and I will be able to see things in a whole new light.

One friend, now a retired attorney, told me that once he completed this rehearsal of individual storytelling, he could see that even the hard times he had faced during his life had turned out to be valuable, exceptional, focused periods of growth.  “I had never thought of my trials as being really great experiences before.  Now I view them as silver linings in my life!  I can see them as opportunities which created beautiful, gnarly branches of character that have given my life added interest and reward.”  He added with a sparkle in his eyes that seemed to make his entire countenance glow.

As he spoke to me, just two hours after I discovered the silvery tree, I could see that his inner glow was all the more visible because of his decision to allow the dead leaves of his past, potential distractions, to fall away.  I could see his strong trunk and gnarled, artfully curving branches spreading out, on full silvery-display, as a result.

My early morning errand had been punctuated by the silvery frame of an almost leafless tree standing alone in the center of a green-space island.  Its bright-white-outline captured my sight immediately and pushed the dim of early morning’s light to illumination though its majestic glow.  But, the striking color of the trunk and branches weren’t what kept my interest riveted there.

My eyes followed the arching curve of the tree’s life-storytelling-trunk and gnarly branches.  “This tree has been through a lot!”  I thought as I studied its unique, illuminous shape.  “Yet, it exhibits a striking stature and color.  It depicts the living of life focused on silver linings.”  Just like my friend’s echoed rehearsal of his own experience.

Both, the tree and the man, resonated a tale of how the hard times you and I will surely face during our lives will turn into valuable, exceptional, focused periods of growth if we will choose to view them through a view trained on seeing the accompanying silver linings!