Eyes that see the good in things- July 9, 2018

“Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.” Oprah Winfrey

Restore, Refresh, Renew, Recreate, Rejuvenate, Rediscover, and Relax. These are just a few of the “re” words that caught my attention this week.

Have you ever noticed that adding the prefix “re” to words, can result in words with powerful, almost spiritual meanings?  

“Re” words were all over the first page of my favorite spa’s website, as you see from this example. When you read this paragraph from their website, notice how many of those words start with “re.”

“Enter through these doors and find out what it means to live in harmony. Surrender all stress with aromatic massage that restores the soul, relaxes the body and refreshes the mind to help you achieve a deep sense of renewal. Unwind as our skilled aesthetician rejuvenates and refines your skin’s texture, helping you to rediscover satin-smooth skin.”

According to Dictionary.com, “re” is a prefix that occurred originally in Latin and is used to indicate moving backward or doing something again. If we are being restored or refreshed, we are returning to something we’ve already known or had but have lost along the way.

When you add that little prefix, the words take new and strengthened meanings and offer us second chances. A second chance to sit back and re-fresh and re-juvenate. A chance to re-store our health or finances, to re-create our career when a change is needed, to re-new our strength.

Within the last week, our beautiful weather, with its moderate temperatures and blue skies, had given way to hot and humid conditions and was the perfect recipe for brewing up a storm. Strong storms, hail and torrential rains have repeatedly pummeled large areas around us. The weather service issued warnings about what the storms were capable of.

During the storms, I worry about the potential damage it will leave in its wake. Sometimes, those storms produce nothing but a magnificent lightening show, booming thunder and howling wind. Just like many of the things that we spend our lives worrying about. But sometimes, there is real damage that we need to clean up and repair.

It reminds me about a lesson I learned from a young apricot tree we planted in our yard. For some unexplained reason, that young tree grew way too fast. As novices, we didn’t realize its quick growth was a problem. Before long, it was well over ten feet tall. Its tall, leafy branches created a large crown on top of a spindly, thin trunk which split at a v, forming two branches that reached high into the air.

When the winds came, the tree didn’t have the foundation it needed to withstand the storm. The tall, leafy branches whipped around in the high winds and eventually resulted in about a long split down the center of the tree trunk.

The experts advised us to cut the top back, a lot, which would take some of the weight off the area that was split and would allow the tree to focus its energy on growing its trunk. They also told us to use a long metal bolt to hold the tree together at the split. Apparently, the tree would eventually grow around the bolt, we wouldn’t even see it and it would become even stronger because of it. Years later, there is no indication the tree was ever hurt, except for a little bulge where the tree has concentrated extra effort at restoring itself.

I was also reminded of my apricot tree when I recently read this story about another tree, which faced many storms where powerful winds, torrential rains, drought, ice and snow threatened to break its branches and pull it up by the roots. But this tree, it stood firm and managed to survive through the toughest storms. Even when it had survived strong storms that should have broken it down, this tree found a way to stand firm against the storms. The storms the tree had survived had actually made it stronger.

In the same way, we all face adversity in our own lives, whether those adversities come through hard economic times, sickness, death or through other trials. When I go through adversity in my own life, I think I am more like my apricot tree than the tree that was able to stand strong through it all. I may not always stand strong, so when the storm is over, I sometimes have take time to heal from the injuries that happen during the storms. I need some time to refresh my spirit and restore my strength. The beauty of this life is that we do get second chances to restore our souls as we weather through our personal storms of life.

It’s during those times that I have to choose to remain broken, or I can learn from the experience. Maybe the problem was caused by something that was preventable. In that case, I can become aware of its causes and come up with a better solution. That’s my favorite, it makes it possible for me to only have to go through that storm one time.

That apricot tree still stands in my yard, and I see it every time I walk out the door. It serves as a daily reminder that the storms of life don’t have to leave us broken. We can look at them as something that can make us stronger and better, and then we can pick up the pieces, mend the broken parts and move on.

We would love to share local stories about the good things your eyes are seeing.

Stop in to share your stories with us, give us a call at 947-2417 or e-mail us at [email protected]. Or send a letter to Eyes That See the Good in Things, c/o Allison Lindgren, The Transcript, 6 8th St N., New Rockford, ND 58356.