This year I did not want to send a classical new year's eve card to you my friends. I sent some of you cards on which paintings of famous artists were printed. Because I believe that they can give you more than the Santa Claus and his bag full of presents can offer... Because I know that these abstract paintings mean a lot more substance than the Santa Claus...Because I can see that the curves of the designs are more aesthetic than a bow... And because I guess that you will also agree... My wishes were identified with those cards. I sent you, my family, the card of Picasso's “Pastorale”, wishing that each one of us would be as joyful as the figures on that painting. To you my dear cousin who is getting ready to get married, I sent Gustav Klimt's “Fullfillment-L'accomplissement” for you have had to fight for making your wish come true, for making your entourage accept the person who loved. To you my dear best friend, I sent the vivacious “Painting” of Joan Miro so that it would add a little bit of color to your life as few of life's colors and round lines seem to have been spared for your share in life...
And to most of you, I sent the card on which stood a tree with bare branches.The tree was by a riverside. There was a rowing boat tied to it a bit further. On the other bank of the river stood an army of green trees one after another that are so alike. I sent you the card with this tree picture on, because I know that it can be more beautiful and charming than a decorated pine tree because its branches are bare and you can decorate it as you wish now.
I sent it to you, thinking that this may be exactly how you perceive yourselves in life, just like a dead tree with bare branches. Believe me, it is better to be a tree that lives through the seasons of life as they should be lived, in cold winter with its branches under heavy snow, one that loses its leaves in autumn, one that knows how to blossom again and again its gorgeous flowers in springs, then one that bears fruit is summers, one that is fed from the soil by its own roots rather than being an artificially decorated plastic pine tree, one that is lightened by little lamps as it does not have the capacity to lighten itself with its own inner light, one that is situated in the middle of the living room with a pot labelled “the others”, one that shows its green leaves all the time as if the changing seasons of life would not change it.
It is such a tree that only decorates itself with what belongs to it naturally, it cannot fit the pots, it demands that its roots embrace the soil fully, it demands that its branches would reach out to the clouds, that sun would touch its leaves, it is one that does not insist to be accompanied by light all the time, one that can find its way even in the pitchest darkness. It is such a tree that others can trust it and tie their rowing boats to it. It is such a tree that the birds entrust with their nests. It is such a tree that is alive and it is connected to one single thing: the nature, the source of all life.
Once you start perceiving yourself like this in life, you don't care about the bumps on the road. You are full of life in fact both when your branches are green or when your leaves are fallen. Life consists of many seasons: sorrow, joy, victory, grief, love, fear and so many others. Each one of these has its own beauty and you should not react to each and every season with the same attitude. Let the winter freeze you, let the fall make your leaves fall after the summer burns them up with its sun...
Let sorrow pale you, let joy turn you into green, bloom with victories, dry up with grief, bear fruit with love, shiver with fear as long as you live the season in which you are. Do not try to remain green because you need to look strong all the time because the real strength is to express the feelings. Dont forget that the pine tree became the Xmas tree because it is green all the time and millions are cut down every winter for this.
You, you should embrace the soil with your roots, you should profit from the minerals of the earth, grow up towards the altitudes. Regrow your leaves, bloom, bear fruits. Does it rain? Let it wash your leaves! Does it blow like crazies? So what if your branches are bowed a bit? If you have made all of these the joys of life, who can be sturdier than you are?
Let some people rest under the shadow of your giant body. Let an ivy grow by holding on to you. Let even the mushrooms grow at the bottom of you, dont resist them, let your northbound get covered with moss and let the lost ones ask their way to you, let a woodpecker make her nest inside your trunk, let the monkeys do somersaults down your branches. Let the sun and the fullmoon lighten you up instead of the colored lamps. On one hand, let the insects carry your pollens to four corners, on the other make love to the wind that you will spread your seeds even to further distances.
So you were a bare dead tree with empty branches to begin with, right? And now, can you see your alternatives? You are the ones to green-up in life. Your leaves cannot turn green if you do not suck the knowledge out of the soil of reason and be washed by the rains of love. You will bloom and bear fruit, moreover you will inseminate others by sending them your pollens so that they too can turn green, they too can bloom and bear fruit. You will create spaces of shadows for others in life so that they can come find the cool when they find themselves in a flaming spot in life. You will lend wings to people so that those who are not as strong and sturdy will still be able to reach to the sunrays. It will be evident that you look towards one side, that you take sides, it will be evident that your north side will be covered with moss so that people will be able to find their ways by looking at you when they get lost.
I know, it looks almost impossible to do all these. Because today nuclear wastes are present in the soil as well as the minerals. Rains are no longer pure water at +4°C, they turned acidic. The bird species that you hope will come and nest on your branches risk going extinct, the mushrooms on your bottom are poisionus, the fishing boat that docks itself to your trunk trawls the fish on the seabeds, in your shadow some people are raping some other, the ozone layer is at 50% capacity, the sunrays do more than warming up. The ivies that grow up holding on to your trunk embrace you but they squeeze you too hard to the point of suffocating you, those that you have sent your pollens are barren, the seasons have lost their balance, they seem to be intertwined, one gets suprised and cannot figure out if he should lose its leaves or bloom.
Exactly because of these, I wanted to send you the card with the picture of the bare tree. So that it will remind you of these. So that it will remind you that the only chance we have at jumping the cliff between who we are and who we should be is through the suspension bridge across our own personality.
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