I was taking a stroll in the Botanical Gardens one evening last week and sat for a moment on a bench. I could hardly believe that just a few hundred feet from where I sat was one of the busiest roadways on the outskirts of our capital city, yet I could hear nothing but the wind gently rustling the leaves in the surrounding trees and the birds sweetly harmonising together.
I had traversed that busy roadway so many times in my life, hurriedly going about my business, and never once gave a thought to visiting the Gardens. I was too busy. I was too rushed. Perhaps I was disillusioned enough to think that anyone who had time to simply stroll in the Gardens on any given evening had nothing productive to do.
In an ironical turn of events, it was a scheduled extra-curricular activity that first brought me to the Gardens many months ago. Given the traffic realities, it didn’t make much sense for me to drop my child and return for her. I decided to stay and wait for her to be done.
I’m so glad I stayed.
The further into the Gardens I ventured, the more peace I encountered. The stillness reverberated off of the leaves of the trees and settled deep within my spirit.
Last week I sat on that bench and reflected on just how many times I had passed this peaceful place by, completely oblivious to the whole new world that awaited anyone who ventured off of the noisy roadway and past its gates.
My gaze settled on the tree right in front of me. I had never seen anything quite like it. One of its branches seemed to stretch up toward the sky and almost make a full circle with its bough.
It was beautiful, yet entirely different from every other tree in the Gardens.
I wondered what this tree was saying.
After a little while, it was as if I could hear it speak.
It said, “The world expects me to look a certain way, but there is beauty in my peculiarity.”
It said, “My growth may look completely different from what you are accustomed to, but that doesn’t mean that I lack strength.”
It said, “My branches grow against your notions of what is good for me, of what a tree must be, but I am unashamed of the progress that I have made from seedling to date.”
I wondered if these affirmations could apply to my life. If it was really possible to live life differently from everything I’ve ever expected. Differently from everything I’ve ever known. I wondered if trying to live life at a slower pace in direct contradiction of society’s call to hurry and to hustle could really yield a life of beauty. If crafting a life that looks different from what I may had originally planned could survive the external pressures to adapt and conform.
Then I saw it. The colours of divine promise encircled the magnificent tree, framing it in all its glory.
Promising that beauty, strength and stability were not compromised by doing things differently, but they were actually enhanced thereby.
Illustrating that the riches at the end of the rainbow were not made of gold, but of peace.
Manifesting that it matters not which direction I grow, once my reach is towards the heavens.
And the peace of the Gardens deepened still.