Have you ever wondered what you would be without any limitations? What if you could grow without anyone getting in the way?
I was on a recent retreat with the School of Philosophy at the San Salvador Estate. At the estate there was a huge tree that at first I thought unusual but familiar, then I realised that it was a papaya tree. It was unlike any papaya tree that I’ve ever seen before; it was about 30-40 feet high, when I was accustomed to seeing papaya trees about 10-12 feet high, 15 feet at most.
The trees that I’m familiar with would grow either in plantations or in people’s yards; they would often cut them down when it grew too tall, or if they no longer bore enough fruit. This huge tree on the other hand was a tree that grew in the wild, in its natural environment, with no one artificially getting in the way of its growth; it grew as high as it could.
It got me thinking, how am I being limited in my growth because of restrictions placed on me, whether by others, or by myself?
We all have been raised to conform to certain requirements. We are told to go to school, go to University, get a good job, buy a car, get married, buy a house, raise a family, retire, and then die. But do we question that? Do we question whether this is our “natural environment”?
I’m sure that our parents had the best intentions when they told us many of these things, but I am also sure, that they would want us to achieve the greatest things that we could.
As I look back at my life, I realise that many of the things that I wanted to do was restricted and I was ‘guided’ to other avenues. I have even placed restrictions on me and what I could do based on the belief that I am doing the best for my family or others. While my life has turned out okay, I wonder now if I have grown as high as I could.
Unlike the papaya tree, we can uproot ourselves from the position we are in, and go to somewhere where we are not restricted; a place where no one can cut us down if we grow too tall.
Where would you go? What would you do?