“I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within.” Lillian Smith
Has life shaped you like a gulf wind has shaped this Goose Island State Park tree? -- Photo by Pat Bean
Travels With Maggie
Standing in a field of grass patterned with bluebonnets at Goose Island State Park is a tree that’s allowed wind blowing in from the Gulf of Mexico to shape its profile.
It wasn’t much different, I thought on first seeing it, then how life shapes us humans.
For some odd reason, I thought again this morning about that tree, which I had photographed last April when I spent a week with my dog, Maggie, on Goose Island birdwatching. I think my brain was triggered in that direction after reading the quote: “Normal is a setting on a washing machine.”
On finding the photograph, I decided to blog about the message the tree had conveyed to me.
I’m not sure now that was such a good idea.
My thoughts, just as I placed my fingers on the keyboard, became such a jungle of contradictions that I’ was suddenly struck wordless. That’s a rarity by the way.
Do I write about how walking into a newsroom the first time pushed the rest of my life into a direction as slanted as that tree? Or about how coming out of a raft and being pulled beneath it gave me more appreciation of life? Or about how travel has opened up new worlds and new ways of thinking?
I couldn’t decide.
Perhaps some less confused blog readers can help me out. How has life shaped you? I’d really like to know.
Pat Bean's blog 
Whoa! I’m with you, Pat. You have opened up a whole tangle of thoughts in my mind too. I will comment with regard to something that is happening in my life right now.
A friend of over 35 years is in the process of transitioning from the physical world. That experience with dying folks always brings on lots of memories and times of reflection. We met only because I chose a certain bank in which to do my banking many years ago. She was a teller there. We got to talking, and when I was looking for a job a few years later, she vouched for me at the bank. We ended up working together, living together at one point, helping each other out in all our times of sorrow and rejoicing with each other in our times of joy. It was one of close friendships which are hard to come by in this world. Less than a year ago, her only son decided she was too old to live alone (she was still driving, in good health and in her right mind, doing her own chores, taking care of her own finances, etc), and sold her house out from under her, exercised his POA and moved her to Idaho (from FL where she had lived since the early 50’s) to live with them on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere with little human contact and unable to make her own decisions. Needless to say, she went downhill fast. This is now prompting me to speak out about what constitutes elder abuse.
My relationship with this woman has very much shaped my life. She was the “mom” I always wanted and never had growing up.
So you wonder, how would my life have been different if I had walked into a different bank?
I made a tiny error in thinking early on, not consciously or by choice, and that set the route for the next thirty years. Now it’s clear how different life might have been. But if I’d taken another road, I wouldn’t have ended up with my dear husband or my dear friend. So I go on from here.
That’s my one insight. Otherwise, I’m just as confused as ever.
In the spring of 1972, my plant taxonomy prof was going to take the class to Goose Island to collect plants. Two days before we were to leave, he threw his back out. I’ve never made it to Goose Island. I guess that’s another road not taken.
Yikes. What a question, Pat. Like you, I got carried off in several different directions, unsure which way to go. It suits the blustery day we’re having, with the wind seeming to change direction at a whim.
That is a gorgeous tree. I’d love to meet it someday.
“I loved the photo and the post. It got me thinking about how choices shaped my life and before long I had the text for today’s blog at my own site, which won’t be posted until 5 pm pacific.”
AL
Ride with me and Lightnin’ on our Year on the Road at http://allevenson.wordpress.com/
What a great question, Pat! Until I read a few of the comments I couldn’t come up with anything resembling an answer, though. My early life was pretty much driven by “coincidences,” from getting my lab training, to meeting my husband, to ending up in Texas instead of Ohio. So, my life has been shaped by “coincidence” (in which I don’t really believe, though).
But as to how it’s specifically shaped me, well, except for literally being nearly twice the woman I used to be, I can’t say. All I can do is quote a woman from a short story I wrote. Two women were once friends, one betrayed the other but the betrayed one never really knew the precise and gory details. Many years later they meet again and one of them described them as “being tenderized by life.” Yeah, I think that pretty well describes me, too. Sam
I have some pics somewhere of similar trees that I snapped in the same area. The thought that always comes to my mind when I see the slanted, stunted but flourishing trees is always one of resiliency and survival–and how I wish I could be more like that.
The winds of change have certainly shaped my life. It is physically manifested. My hair looks like that tree every morning when I wake up.
Great picture of a great tree! A work of art made by growth, wind, mechanics and humanity.
Everything we’ve been and done has brought us to who and where we are now. Life shapes us, and we take that and act upon it and shape our lives. Our lives are a collaborative effort between ourselves…and everything else! 😉
WOW… what a question. How has life shaped me? I can think of a dozen answers to this question, but I’ll stick with the farthest-back one. From the time I was a small child, my mother drilled a repeated pair of instructions into my head. “If you got yourself into it, you can get yourself out.” and “Don’t expect anyone to take care of you; you’ve got to be able to take care of yourself.” This is good advice, but also a little harsh when it’s the message you hear over and over from childhood on. Whether I got stuck too high in a tree I’d climbed, couldn’t figure out the washing machine, or got overwhelmed by algebra class: I could bet Mama wasn’t going to help. She’d stand under the tree and wait for me to figure out how to get down, then say, “See,” and be done with it. She’d let me struggle until I had read the instructions over and over and understood the machine (or the equation). Those lessons have made a massive impact on who I am now. I am fiercely (sometimes painfully and even neurotically) independent. I don’t ask for help until I have absolutely no other choice, and I feel guilty when I finally have to. But I’m also fiercely (and very successfully) self-sufficient and capable of taking care of myself. I am not afraid to go do something scary, b/c I know if I get myself into it there will be a way to get back out. And I know I can take care of myself. So I do things that my friends often wonder at, things that make people say, “I could never be that brave or do that,” and I think, “Why not? Can’t you handle anything you get yourself into?”