The Lone Pine Tree

that never gets a break, yet always stands tall.

Nov 14, 2022

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Life is busy. Whether it’s trying to balance responsibilities at work, home, in your relationships, or even with your dog, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

As we have been slowly moving into our winter season, I couldn’t help but wonder how pine trees feel about never getting to rest for an entire season. While all of the other trees in the forest have gone dormant, having lost all of their color, pine trees are always covered in their iconic deep green needles that are always bringing color into the world.

I could be wrong, but I feel like a lot of us can relate to pine trees. If you look around, it is easy to feel like everyone else is getting huge periods of rest while you are constantly working. And while it’s easy to rationalize our own business in a million different ways, busy is still just busy at the end of the day. Doesn’t matter how you package it.

Yet when you look a little bit closer, the jealousy that we are often quick to construct inside our own hearts and minds towards those that seem not as busy as us is rooted in deception. Both deciduous and evergreen trees have moments of dormancy. It just so happens that evergreen trees are masters of time management. While it takes deciduous trees a whole season to store up the water and energy needed to survive winter, pine trees are constantly working on conserving energy—hence their tiny green needles.

While it might seem as though pine trees have no time of rest, think about this:

Every single pine tree sits atop a bed of pine needles—remnants of what once was, and hints of what is yet to come.

Instead of worrying about finding huge moments of rest, work on managing how much work you are doing at once. If you are constantly working on things, you will eventually be like an oak tree in autumn—slowly falling into a deep sleep Your body will demand a season of rest, and lots of it. But if you work like a pine tree, you’ll find that you will be able to bring color into the world year round. You won’t need a season of recharging. You will be a beacon of hope for all around you.

In the same way that pine trees drop their needles, drop all of the things that you are working on that are keeping you from being green all year long. You might just find yourself covered in Christmas lights after everything is said and done.