‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.

Doesn’t it rely on an individual’s definition of broken? Or even their care of something being broken? Their care of it being fixed?

Splinters irritate and cause pain but ultimately you can’t fix the wood, mould it back to what it used to be. Take the splinter, pair it with another, and another, press them together to form what it once was, no. Really, the wood was broken long ago, cut down from its leafy reachings, chopped, bleached and not seen or looked at in the same way again. It is broken to suit others needs.

You have the people that will watch a tree grow, its branches bloom and its roots grow deep. Others cut it down in its prime, never seeing its true potential. After all, if you cut down a tree that’s the end; you have the underlying memories that linger and die underground, the chunks of its past life thrown away and its tiny reminder left at its base. One look at the potential and you’ll see that it will weather any storm because it won’t give up its fight for survival. It bends and adapts to its harsh environment; it knows no other way than this.

However, one day, the storm will be too much, the branches will break, its leaves will die and no flowers will see the sun. The fight is over. The clouds hover above the carcass that can’t be fixed, can’t be put back together and be what it used to be.

But if you are lucky someone someday will see new potential, carve something beautiful out of the destroyed wood and save what once was, preserving its beauty forever.

Like I said if you are broken, others may not care, they may in fact be the ones that broke you but out there the one person that sees you grow from sapling to sky-reaching tree will help you shape life again. They will give you your roots back.

Photo by Dave Watson
Please check out his work on https://www.instagram.com/davewatson_uk/ or at https://davewatson1980.picfair.com