Photo: 11/2016 at Amsterdam forest
03/2011-Journal entry
Over Coming
I took a walk through a small forest in New Jersey. My little adventure started by walking along a narrow but long stream. Shortly thereafter, I spotted a tree that had a large trunk that stretched out to the middle of the flowing stream. I climbed onto the tree by stretching my leg across it and jumping onto the thick trunk. I sat there for a time observing the scene from all sides. Satisfied with my peace from sitting there, I jumped down and walked farther downstream. I found a stick to play with and used it to lean on. As I continued on my adventure, I came across another curiously looking tree leaning over the middle of the stream. This tree, though, was leaning down to the ground, and the trunk was lying close to the surface of the water. I climbed onto it and scudded out on to the trunk above the water and sat there and played with my stick in the water. I was splashing away and enjoying the sprinkling water floating in the air, stopping in mid-motion and falling down to unite with the stream. I settle there and observed the view from the stream from right to left and talked with God about how He wants me to serve Him in this life. When I got up, I saw a straight tree that was tall and unusually wide. I wanted to see it closer. Without thinking much about it, I went through some bushes that had thorns on them in order to get to this tree that I just had to be next to. Once I was close to the tree, I observed its uniqueness from all angles. I found it to be immensely mysterious. And right next to it, there was a tree with one of its branches close to the ground. So, I stood on top of the wide branch while I played with my stick, doing a balancing act as I walked along the branch trolling my stick in my hands. When I look back, I was a kid in my own magical forest observing and even finding a friend in my long cricket stick, my magic wand. Next, I jumped off the branch and saw another intriguing tree a little farther ahead. I made my way towards it. Along the way, I came across more thorny bushes, but they didn’t seem too difficult to get through. I used my wand to push them out of my way. I made it to the tree that interested me, and it was quite different, as they all were. I stood there and stared at this tree. Sometimes, it’s strange when you can sense the history of some trees. It’s as if they’ve been around for such a long time and could tell you fascinating stories, only if they could talk. Then I decided that I wanted to go back towards the stream, but that path was now surrounded by thorny bushes. I had to think of how to get out of this situation that I created. Lucky, I had my magic wand to help me go back to the place where I wanted to be. I used it to push aside and lay down the thorny bushes, so I could move forward. Along the way, I had to change directions where less spiky bushes to avoid being surrounded by them. Through this path, I got scratched and stuck by thorns, but nothing that wouldn’t heal shortly after getting through the maze. How I could get myself into this, I thought. I simply saw a fascinating tree, then another one, and before I knew it, I was in a hostile environment where I had to fight my way out to get back to the peaceful land. It was the story of my life. There were a lot of twists, turns, disappointments with pain, with just a few wounds I have survived to heal and I've gained a lot of lessons learned. The way I see it now is that life has struggles, but the situations presented are preparing us for our destiny. Trials teach and make us stronger and smarter so we become our best for ourselves and for others than stay stagnantly. One morning when I woke up, I heard a voice whisper,” jump onto the table of diamonds.” I thought about it, then I realized the symbolic meaning is that my hard times has turned me into a strong, uniquely beautiful, precious jewel shining brightly and I have a layer of God’s love, making me positively impenetrable and unbreakable. The same applies to you.