Willow Therapy

When I was a young girl I would visit my Grandparents home, my Grandfather had a green thumb and it was like visiting an enchanted forest, were at any moment faeries would come and dance.  This is the joy of childhood having places that are so special they must be magic. In this magical kingdom was a giant weeping willow tree, with swaying branches that toward into the sky and skimmed the ground. My cousins and I would swing from the branches and imagine great adventures. As we got older the magic turned into an appreciation of the natural beauty of something so strong  but yielding that represented dreams and hope.

 

One night during a horrible storm the tree was struck by lightening it split the tree in half, past the branches and down to the trunk. The tree had become a symbol of sorts for our family and we mourned the loss of something that had represented so much.

 

My Grandfather being a man of nature asked to have the tree only cut to the break point as the tree was also a habitat for the wildlife on the property and he left it as a nature habitat. If the story ended here it would still be impressive and speak to the power of others to see beauty and value in the broken and damaged.  This is not the end however, over the years the tree began to grow on branch at a time from the stump, eventually towering over the yard and though it bore the scars of the trauma it continued to provide life and magic to the yard.

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This is what counseling is to me, it is not about avoiding tragedy but growing from it. In life sometimes hard and terrible things happen that may seem to shatter us, wipe our belief in magic and in new beginnings and make it seem impossible to go on. However, like that Willow Tree if you are willing to open yourself up to new possibilities, you can grow from these experiences and show yourself and the world that you can always reach of the sky.