Good morning! Here's another tree story but this one is a little different. It tells about not taking your work troubles home with you but instead keep them away from the home and hang them at the Trouble Tree outside your home. It makes sense to me because most of us (me included) tend to bring our problems from work home and that could spoil the joy of the home environment. Read on.
I hired a plumber to help me restore an old farmhouse, and after he had just finished a rough first day on the job, a flat tire made him lose an hour of work & his electric drill quit, his ancient one ton truck refused to start. As I drove him home, he sat in stony silence.
On arriving he invited me in to meet his family. As we walked toward the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands. Upon opening the door he had undergone an amazing transformation. His tanned face was wreathed in smiles and he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss.
Afterward he walked me to the car. We passed the tree and my curiosity got the better of me. I asked him about what I had seen him do at the little tree.
"Oh, that's my trouble tree," he replied. "I know I can't help having troubles on the job, but one thing's for sure, those troubles don't belong in the house with my wife and the children. So I just hang them up on the tree every night when I come home and ask God to take care of them. Then in the morning I pick them up again." Funny thing is," he smiled, "when I come out in the morning to pick them up, there aren't nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before."
Source unknown
Interesting story.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that it is a tradition in the Japanese Shinto religion that, if you draw a bad omikuji fortune, you should tie it to one of the trees in a shrine? That's why shrine trees often have lots of pieces of paper ties to them.
It's kind of the same thing, only different...
MM, I think that's a splendid idea. Most of us, Chinese, who go to the temple for a fortune reading would bring home a bad omikuji only to worry over it. Tying it to a tree would give some relief that one has left it behind and not bring it home.
ReplyDeleteIt's also akin to like writing down one's troubles or negative thoughts and destroying the piece of paper afterwards. This act somehow would get oneself rid of the negative thoughts. I believe it works. The mind is an interesting thing. It can be conditioned.