A Tree and Its Fruit - Living Your Best Life

In a recent morning devotional, I came across a verse in Luke that said “A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit!” I’ve read this before but it jumped out at me that morning and stuck. Since then I have been thinking about, and looking at trees, which caused me to want to do a little deep dive and learn more about them and see the correlation to how this relates to us as humans.

In yoga, tree pose is a grounding and balancing pose. The foot touching the ground is anchored and pressed firmly to the earth to help secure stability for your body as you raise your other leg and place your foot on your inner thigh. In this pose there is a lot of focus on two things: One, keeping that foot planted and secure and two, your eyes are focused. Holding this pose brings balance to both the body and mind as you utilize focus and concentration. As you master it and are able to stand firm and stay focused, eventually even raising your arms and lifting your gaze to the sky, you build big confidence! It's a pose that makes you feel all of those things- steady, secure, balanced, strong and confident!

I love the quote “heal the roots so the tree is stable,” and I think it nicely represents the concepts of Chinese medicine and ayurvedic practices, in the realm of human healing and getting to the root cause. Treating the physical ailments with ancient, holistic remedies that get to the source of the problem rather than masking the symptoms. This is also very relevant even with mental or emotional health and is expressed in counseling and therapy modalities to heal the inner parts of us.

As I read the verse from Luke, I began thinking about my life, my body, and how I always want to produce good “fruit.” I want to be healthy and energetic, I want to be loving and kind, I want to be purposeful and meaningful, I want to have joy and fun. All the things! So my thoughts are this: If I want this good “fruit,” I have to be a good “tree” with healthy roots.

If I had to guess, most everyone wants these things. I think somehow though, we have all been caught in chasing or doing the wrong things to get the good we want. As a result we have a society that's tired, sick, overweight, angry, often unkind, in debt, hurried and disconnected. In search of this better life, the American dream, or whatever you want to call it, we have become bad trees, bearing bad fruit. Not because it was intended. Probably the opposite. But, sadly we have all fallen for the lies of how to obtain such things as good health, happy relationships, rest and enjoyment, meaning, purpose and even money. We have allowed ourselves to be “rooted” and grounded in things that will not give us true stability or security. We have fallen for gimmicky health plans, and even quick fixes with a pill or a shot. We have believed the lie that rest and enjoyment mean you're lazy and working yourself into the ground is the only means to success and wealth. After working so hard for these dreams and neglecting our own sleep and self care, we are also neglecting relationships and failing to nurture positive connections because we are tired, and it's easier to stare at a screen. The screen we are looking at makes us feel even worse because we are seeing everyone else’s success, and so we get up and try harder. Harder to be rich, skinny, happy and liked.

What if though, we returned to just a few basic things that could heal us from the inside out, help us feel good, thrive, and live our best life! Living as “good trees” producing “good fruit” but with less strain in striving! There are some fundamental things that have been lost that could radically change all the brokenness in our “healthcare” system. If, like a healthy tree, we were grounded and planted in something secure, like our faith, our PERSONAL connection to God, and then also choose to go back to very practical healing practices like REST (8 hours of sleep), more MOVEMENT of any kind, NOURISHMENT with real food that actually fuels our body and mind, and lastly CONNECTION with others, this may help heal many of us and make us thrive again!

I am very fascinated by learning about the Redwood Sequoia Trees, some of the biggest trees that are between 250-330 feet tall and 20-26 feet in diameter. These trees don't have thick roots or even deep roots. The thickest part of the root is at the base and the remaining roots are smaller roots that spread as far as 150 feet from the trunk. They spread wide and they intertwine with the roots of the other trees, a sort of locking arms, to create stability for all. I love this vision of how important it is to be connected to others and how individually, we may be weak, but together we create strength and stability for all.

This week's blog is just to make you think. Not to judge you for where you may be in your health journey or even to shed a negative light on the current ways of the world. My hope is to just challenge each one, to really think about the profound impacts of the health choices we make day to day. It never just affects us. It affects our family and even society as a whole when we are all exhausted, sick, disconnected and even sad. It doesn't have to be this way. Our bodies are not forever, but they are important while we are here. They are the carriers of our soul and our life's work and it is vital that we love them well in our time on this earth.

Simple changes to these key areas of life could be the catalyst for radical health change for you…and even worldwide! Call me crazy, but I really believe this! As a matter of fact I am passionate about it! I hope these words will somehow cause you to stop and just evaluate where you are in these areas of REST, NUTRITION, MOVEMENT and CONNECTION. Where are your roots planted, or where/how do you find your stability? I know change is never easy, but consider how you might improve in each area, take small steps towards that each day and lock arms with an accountability partner and friend, so we can all get truly healthy together.

Living as good trees, firmly planted, producing good fruit…living abundantly, happy, and well!

It's contagious!

Always with love,

Keri :)

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Quick Note: I wanted to give you some awesome books to check out that may help you on this journey! Let me know if you get a chance to finish them and your thoughts :)

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World By: John Mark Comer

The Joy of Well-Being: A Practical Guide to a Happy, Healthy, and Long Life By: Colleen & Jason Wachob