“The Magic Tree”

During the creation of this piece, I have been extremely blessed to get to know the wonderful person who commissioned this amazing project. For her, this functional work of art was intended to be a stable foundation, a place from which she would launch herself and her amazing work forward, to spread her wings and continue to share her strengths by helping people grow through pain, trauma and loss. Kathy’s work blends the concepts of Post-traumatic Growth, Positive Psychology and neuroscience to coach people personally and professionally through life’s most challenging transitions. Her own story of perseverance and growth in the face of life changing adversity has been an inspiration for this project and a source of strength for me as I navigate my own transitions in life and I am very grateful and fortunate to call Kathy one of my best friends.

One of the concepts that were discussed though the creative process was how positive energy (and negative energy for that matter) transfers through the things we create and holds that energy far after the completion of the work. It’s as if the tree we were creating in our shop was being filled with all the good vibes that we put into it. From the opportunities I had to share my skills and experience with the shop’s most capable craftsman Travis, to working long hot days with my trusted friend Sean, who had never held a torch in his life, to allowing my son to be a part of the process as the “fire chief” for a day, every step of the way was filled with new experiences and meaningful moments that enriched the lives of everyone involved despite the innate challenges that such an intense project entails.

There were days on end (weeks actually) of one hundred degree heat when we were working with two blazing torches, heating and winding the ¼” round steel rod around and around the trunks of the trees from first thing in the morning till we shut down at the end of the day. There we moments when we had to decide between changing the integrity of the project and simplifying the process or forging ahead (literally) because we wanted to see the grand vision of what we had intended come to fruition. We all got burned, we all have cuts and slashes that stung and bled, we all have the scars that come with doing this kind of work that is dangerous but matters. These scars are part of moving forward, they are a part of doing something difficult that’s never been done before and they are an inalienable part of putting your heart and soul into something you believe in. At the end of the project it was clear to all of us that this tree was truly made with the kind of energy that inspires growth for whomever is in its presence.

For me, there was clear evidence of the old adage “we reap what we sow”. The acknowledgement, encouragement and positive energy from everyone involved of the intense nature and quality of the work that was going into this project was like watering the tree itself as it grew into a work of art. Every time we hit a snag, there was this quiet confidence that was transmuted through everyone involved by the energy that this piece was intended to hold. It didn’t just come from one of us, it coursed through all of us like water up through roots then coursing through the veins of an entire forest of trees all reaching toward the light—it sounds hokey, I know but that’s really what was going on. We were all benefitting from the positive energy that this one thing represented to each of us—we were all a part of it and it was in fact magic!

The lessons of reaping and sowing as they relate to this work also reminded me that it is what we put into an endeavor that defines the potential for what can come as a result. That when we know where we want to go or what we want to create there is always a way forward. It may not turn out exactly the way we want it to—in fact it hardly ever does—and as long as there is the will to continue there is room for growth toward a better outcome.

What also occurred throughout this project was a sharing of knowledge and passing on of experience that was profoundly rewarding. What we pass on of ourselves grows in hearts of others and is then passed on again and again and again. Like the seeds from a tree that grow the next generation of trees. It again was passed through all of us as we grew in our own ways from the seeds we planted in each other along the way. The evolution of the design went from a singular tree holding up a giant slab to the growth of another tree to support the end that could not be help by just one. No matter how strong that one tree may be, it needed another to complete the work and create a more functionally stable and more aesthetically whole piece. I align this “sprout” with how we interact with the people around us in our lives. That no matter what we need each other to help carry the load, to learn from, to grow with and to share in the beauty as well as the pain. It is why we are here as humans.

And as the work that we did on this “Magic Tee” continued and we all became a part of it I was struck by the way we all saw the imperfections and that we all agreed to include them as part of the growth process. It really drove home the correlation to the work that was going to be done at this desk by the person who inspired me to create it. The sculpture like we humans, had scars that were representative of our challenges in life.

Broken branches of trees heal and form scars. These scars are the toughest most rigid folds of a tree’s bark and similarly of a human’s skin. We like trees have the ability to grow over and around our scars, sometimes even covering them altogether, yet they are and will always be part of our experience. After we experience trauma or losses that leave scars like broken branches on a tree, we humans, unlike trees, have to choose how we move forward. We may be able to physically survive a trauma but for how long will we survive the pain and suffering that is left behind in our hearts? Do we let these wounds kill us over time from the inside out?  Even though we are wounded, do we allow these losses debilitate us to a lesser capacity or do we choose to grow in new ways that allow us to overcome the effects of that wound? When we have been injured or when we lose something or someone dear to us do we allow that loss to diminish our ability to grow? Or do we grow around our scars like trees and move forward despite the permanence of these wounds within our experience and despite the ways the resulting pain has shaped us in ways we cannot undo.

As humans, we have the option to choose growth in spite of pain or loss. Like trees, we have a natural ability to grow over our amputations and disfigurements. It is within our capacity to move forward despite the things that were missing that we wished were there all along. And we have the power to survive, to grow stronger and thrive in spite of the things we need to replace or repair within ourselves…just like trees. And, just like trees in a forest, we become much stronger when we grow through our challenges together.