Does a Crooked Tree Offend YOU?

I have always been fascinated by crooked or severely gnarled trees. I spend years photographing them and not many people understood why. The crooked trees were symbolic to me of damage done during the formative years. The severely gnarled trees spoke to me of life's inevitable pain.

Do you see how this tree grew? It started out in its infancy healthy, growing straight to the sky. But some trauma obviously occurred that caused it to start growing crooked to the left. As a horticulturist, I know this was during its formative years.

Survivors of childhood abuse - all kinds of abuse - also begin to grow in a crooked fashion as they try to compensate for the damage done to them through trauma. Abuse causes humans to grow differently than those who were not abused. Anything that happens during a child's formative years causes change in psychological growth. Some that were severely abused physically or sexually cope with the abuse by forming "alters" - alternative personalities that appear as needed. Always there is a dominant strong personality that appears if needed. For one person I know that was "Writer". For another person, it was "Fighter" whose job it was to protect the other personalities.

But look at the tree again. See how it not only survived, but began to grow straight and tall? Amazing! What caused its growth pattern to change? Maybe it was its nature to grow toward the light that won out in the end. Its need to grow towards the sun was greater than the damage it incurred.

Humans are the same in many respects. Their damage and its consequences meet up with something that is stronger and allows them to heal - not unaffected, but definitely stronger. Maybe it's someone who believed in them. That person, for me, was my 8th grade teacher, Margaret Oliphant. In many cases, it's loving a pet - dog, cat, horse, or any animal that accepts their love without threatening them.