We Do Our Part By Fulfilling Our Potential.

MY HISTORY — ORIGINALLY POSTED NOVEMBER 24, 2024 ON INSTAGRAM@THEPOINTOFYOU

Yesterday, during a break in the atmospheric river, I went for my morning neighborhood walk and took another picture of my favorite big beautiful tree in my neighborhood park … and it got me thinking, again.

That tree was likely planted about 100 years ago, in early 1900. It has gone through the seasons year after year and continued to grow. It didn’t have a choice of where it was planted. It’s faced winter freezes and summer heat. It’s been climbed in and pissed on and carved into. Limbs have broken off and been cut off. But, no matter what’s happening around it or to it, it has just continued to grow. To keep fulfilling its inherent potential. To keep offering what it can offer to the world, specifically those of us who frequent that park and find joy in the fresh air, shade and beauty it contributes to our day-to-day lives. It’s doing its part. In community. Every day. And it’s enough.

As I move through recent feelings of shock, disappointment, sadness, anxiety and anger due to choices made by others that jeopardize the equality, safety and well-being of so many human beings (and, of course, all other life on this planet), I’m finding my center, again, by recognizing that the point of my existence hasn’t changed. Just like the tree, the point is to keep growing. To keep focusing on “getting over my own Self defeat” in order to fulfill my inherent potential. To keep offering what only I can offer to the world. To keep doing my part. Every day. In community with others doing the same in their own unique ways.