A friend posted on Facebook the other day a photo of a tree in his yard with the caption “The saga of the Lone Lemon continues.”  He said it’s been the lone lemon for 6 or 7 months.  I took a look at the pic and told him “I’d widen the circle around this tree if you want that trunk to thicken up and grow straight, or at least center it so the one side is not so near to the trunk. I learned that with mine.  That trunk will thicken up even in the next month, ” I wrote, “if you set the hose to trickle on it after the circle is removed. The same with being tied to a stake, it can feel something closeby and doesn’t want to intrude and grow into it so it stunts its own growth and stays slim and weak. Weird huh?”

I thought how like this tree we all are.

We find ourselves in a circle of people who also act as a boundary to us as well.   Then inside this boundary all the ideas are thrown around and bounced off each other and come back around again, and we begin to get self contained.  And in our containment often comes smallness, as we shrink ourselves down to avoid being singled out, even to having no original ideas, just going along with the group mindset.

But when those boundaries are removed, we can reach our arms out all around us and spin in joy, and we are free and not bumping into what was once our boundaries.  We have freedom to grow and stretch and reach beyond our current capacity.   We can grow strong because nothing hovers to pin us in.

And just like removing the concrete circle around the trunk of the lemon tree, we can remove those outdated notions and even friends who only serve now to limit us or hold us back, and free ourselves to enjoy more that life has to offer.