What the cherry tree taught me

It’s after a day’s work that I find myself at my parents house under one of two cherry trees. It’s breezy and there is a slow and soft song of a massive wind chime in the air. I’m under a haven of leaves picking off bright red, ripe cherries and filling up my basket. Over, and over again I reach up into the tree and still there are more and more.

The harvest has a meditative rhythm to it. I’m struck by the sheer abundance of one tree. How often in life I am limited by the belief that there will not be enough of something. I’ve always had a third sense in my head able to quickly calculate timelines and resources. It’s served me well in the workplace for project management, but I wonder if my focus has led me to only see the depletion.

It takes mindful awareness and I have to intentionally look for it to avoid believing that life is scarce and difficult. For those who see it and give freely and naturally, they know the lesson of the cherry tree – that life is abundant, and when we set our focus on abundance it becomes available to us.

So as each of the bright red, wonderful cherries moves from the tree to my basket, I’m focusing on earth’s abundance.


Engagement: What limiting beliefs do you focus on that limit the abundance in your life? What abundance are you overlooking?