oak and the willow

While I am taking a break from direct quotes posts, I can’t quite quit them altogether. The love I have for quotes started way back in the day with a love for myths, fairy tales, folklore and more importantly fables. I can still visual my beloved children’s fable book with its red hardcover, gilded lettering and the first story being the tortoise and the hare. Not that I identify with the tortoise (with a need for speed). But that particular fable is from Aesop, as is ‘the oak and the reed’. There are countless variations to the tree theme, but for me it’s the oak and the willow as I fancy myself a willow and not a reed. What can I say, a willow is way prettier than a reed.

I have strength, the brute strength the oak typifies. I can stand upright, by myself, on my own feet, on my terms, as strong and tall as an oak.Yet even with the recent discovery of that strength, I most recently realised that I have so little bend.. confidence in  myself and in others. I don’t trust in my abilities, my beauty (inside and out), my strength and absolutely not in others. Result being; one strong breeze, one gust and I tremble, shudder and fall like an oak in a open field.

I am only now realising that being an oak is great but sometimes it’s even better to be a willow. Funny that what seems like such frivolous exercises; bending forward in my running stance, trusting others to catch me and to simply move my arm for me, to keep my balance with physical or mental strength, reminded me that therein also lies a strength.To me the bending of the willow is confidence and trust..humility and humanity. Trust that my back doesn’t always have to be straight and that people will not let necessarily let me fall. 

Give a little, bend a little, trust a little. Lightness and elasticity add to strength, not subtract from it. Today, in this run, I am going for roots and air. Back straight, stance forward, facing into the wind..