About a month ago I was hiking in the woods at a nearby game refuge, and I saw this tree living inside a wall of rock.
Although I had been walking at a rather fast pace (for me anyway...), the sight of the tree in the rock stopped me short.
I thought to myself,
How on earth--quite literally in this case--did that tree adapt to such living conditions as to grow out of the cold, hard stone?
As I thought this, I stood in awe.
You see, adaptation has never been my forte.
Unlike the tree, when I find myself in unwanted or challenging situations, I have tremendous difficulty making that pivot into accepting life on life's terms.
It's not for lack of wanting though.
I fully embrace the idea that acceptance and adaptation bring greater freedom and even liberation- I just find it so hard to actually do it.
Which is why I admired the tree, and even my 10 year-old cat who was recently able to adapt as well when a new kitten named Aurora took up residence in her house.
I do have some theories about why it is difficult for me though- in other words, insight.
One of those theories is: resentment.
Resentment most surely negatively impacts my ability to adapt to life's natural unfolding.
Yet nature (trees and animals and the smallest organisms on the planet) has lessons to teach me about another way to live.
I wrote recently that I've been reading 20th century Dutch author, theologian and professor, Henri Nouwen, and in his book Spiritual Formation: Following the Movements of the Spirit he told this story:
I met an old priest who said to me: 'I complained for too long that my work was constantly being interrupted, until I discovered that my interruptions were my work'...
He then went on to describe the lesson of resentment in this story:
Resentment is exactly the complaint that life does not unfold the way we planned; that our many goals and projects are constantly interrupted by the events of the hour, the day, and the year; and that there is no choice other than to become the passive victim of random incidents and happenstance...
It seems to me that the antidote to resentment, may very well be adaptation.
Adaptation, and according to Henri Nouwen (if you want to be a spiritual over-achiever perhaps...), maybe even gratitude.
He wrote:
Resentment makes us blind to God's carving hand, but gratitude helps us recognize the process- that slowly but surely, we are being formed into a beautiful work of art; that we are being prepared to be a person who can offer our own pains as a source of healing for others.
So let us try today.
Let us try to adapt to our unfolding lives by releasing some of those resentments, and maybe even opening ourselves up to a little bit of gratitude.
May it be so.
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