Lessons From Trees: The Ash Tree
One hot August day several years ago I purchased a four-foot-tall Ash Tree on clearance from Home Depot. It was obvious why the tree was on clearance—the time spent over the summer in a small planting pot had it looking pretty sad—but the price was so appealing I decided to give the tree a home in my yard.
I took the small sapling home and planted it in a good spot on the east side of our house, where it would get plenty of sun. Over the rest of the summer and fall I made sure it had plenty of water. The small number of leaves stayed green right up to October, but I knew the tree wasn’t out of the woods yet (pardon the humor). That little guy had to somehow survive winter without the opportunity to spread its roots.
As luck would have it, that winter was particularly harsh—extra cold and extra snowy—so by spring I was convinced that my little tree would be dead. Its appearance seemed to confirm my fears. Throughout the month of March the branches looked like dry kindling. Believing it was dead, the only thing that kept me from digging it up were the dark pods at the end of each branch. I wondered if by some miracle those little pods held life. And to my great pleasure, they did!
Sometime in mid-April I noticed that those little pods were turning from dark brown to green. A week later they sprouted open into new growth, all covered with leaves. My little clearance-priced tree had survived!
Over the next several years my tree didn’t just survive, it thrived. Each year it grew taller, until finally it towered over our home, spreading its branches and providing shade for our yard.
My ash tree taught me to be patient. When I thought my tree was dead I almost dug it up and threw it away. If I hadn’t waited patiently for it to come to life after that first winter, I would have robbed it of the chance to grow. Like my tree, some of our best ideas and plans take time to grow. Make sure you have given it plenty of time before you give up.
Patience is an attribute often missing in education, where the “next best thing” is usually in development even as the “last best thing” is being implemented. Way too often we move on from a project or program without giving it a chance to succeed. But isn’t one beautiful, tall tree more appealing than a bunch of tossed away saplings?
My tree taught me a powerful lesson about potential. When I purchased the sickly sapling, I never dreamed it would eventually grow into a beautiful twenty-five-foot-tall shade tree! It exceeded my expectations four-fold. Like my tree, you can’t see the inner workings of a human being. You can do all the mental and physical measurements. You can even assess talent. But you can’t measure heart. Tom Brady, the GOAT of the NFL, is a classic example of that.
You can guess the potential outcome of a project, but too often we limit the outcome based on those projections. In 1991, my first year at Davis High, our Moonlight Serenade Dinner/Dance was attended by 190 people. At the time I could only hope that someday we would run the event for two nights, serving a total of 300 people. Looking back now, I’m glad that my limited outlook didn’t hinder the growth of that wonderful event. In 2018 we served nearly 1200 people over a three-night event!
Unfortunately, my ash tree was toppled by the combination of a wet spring and one of Davis County’s famous wind storms. Every time I look at the spot where my beautiful tree once stood, I miss it’s beauty, but I also remember the lessons it taught me.
