Hold fast your roots of commitment of calm, of trust and your branches may blow in the breeze of change, uncertainty and transition. With a strong enough base of commitment and trust, your branches will face these changes with calm and even with joy and with laughter. Let your roots grow strong and let your branches reach out in joyful abandon to the events, people and circumstances that are coming your way.

We are Sugar Maple. Our growth and properties are a celebration of life's pleasures, of our joy in being here and our generosity in offering ourselves to those around us.

All too often you focus your attention on the hardships and disappointments in life. And while putting your attention on them can lead you to come to terms with them, too strict a focus on them can detract from a balanced understanding of who you are. Focus on your joys as well, on your pleasures, on your compassion and generosity. Focus as well on the gifts you have to offer yourself and the world around you, and you have a more balanced view of where your energies lie. We are Sugar Maple. Be like us.

Even a patch of sunlight has a life of its own. It is born. It glows in all of its splendour and it dies, never staying the same from one moment to the next. All around you is as fleeting as that patch of golden light. The trees have their own seasons. The people, the soil on which you stand, the course of water nearby all have their seasons. They all shine with their unique and special light in their own way. And then, they, too, die to give birth to another expression.

We are Maple. We may seem more enduring than that patch of golden light, but our lives, too, are a cycle of birth, expression and death, to be reborn in another way or in another place. See the cycles in all these things and you begin to see the movement of expression in all around you. We are Maple. Be with us.

You may take many side trips, walk many dead ends and have to retrace your steps in the path towards light. Unaware at first, that this is what you naturally reach for, you may deliberately try to grow in different directions, thinking that these are the directions that are your salvation. Instead, see yourself in me.

I am the light, spring green of a sapling. Covered as I am in my early years with a forest of shade, a need to find room to grow, it can be difficult at first for me to reach directly towards light. I sometimes need to twist in my growth, in a new direction, to twine off another way. But each force of will in twining off in a new direction, is always through a natural need to grow towards light.

See yourself as me. Don't hold yourself hidden under the forest canopy. Break through. Use your will to push you forward, not hold you back, to strive consciously towards the light, rather than huddle protectively under a canopy of old thoughts and beliefs, under the false security of stability and sameness. Reach towards the light, and like me, one day you will find yourself growing strong and high, expressing yourself in a massive presence.

Don't let the twists and turns, the dead ends, the retracing of your steps dissuade you from your path, for your path, like mine, is a path to the light.

Each thing or person you see around you, each event that occurs to you or is brought into your awareness, each colour, song, presence, occurrence is around you for a reason. Each is within your perception for a reason. As you open your perceptions to things of greater beauty, harmony and balance, you allow them to occur more often your life. This occurrence is a reflection of your own harmony and balance. But it is the faith that you can bring about these things that allows you to perceive them.

We are Silver Maple. Look closely at one of our leaves and you will see the entire existence of Silver Maple in its life and in your life. Look at our growth and you see your own. Look at our freshness and you see your own. Feel our satisfaction and you feel your own. Experience the beauty of us and you experience the beauty of your own self. We are Silver Maple. See us in beauty and you walk in beauty.

All content Copyright © Janet Dane unless otherwise stated.