the impact of the wind

The idea for this blog came to me earlier as I was lying on the ground under a tree for a while. I was observing it slowly swaying in the wind, and it caused me to think...

Wind is an invisible force, it cannot be seen as a physical thing, but the effects of it can be seen, such as litter being moved when there is a light breeze. After thinking about wind being invisible, and watching a tree swaying, I thought harder about it and it became a metaphor in my mind.

Think of yourself as a tree. You have leaves, branches, a trunk and roots. Your leaves represent what is obvious about you, the things that you do not keep hidden. These could be things such as basic emotions, personality traits, your wants and your needs. The things that you make public about yourself are the leaves. Your trunk is your inner self; who you truly are inside and what can't be changed easily. This could be your beliefs or true desires in life. Your branches are what connect your inner self to your outer self, and your roots are what connect you to the world. And finally, let's say that the wind is a variable from the rest of the world, whether it be positive or negative.

When the wind hits your tree, the leaves move a lot. This movement represents your overt reactions, such as happiness or sadness towards the situation. The most movement occurs in the leaves. These are what are impacted most by the wind. Emotions change very frequently and fluctuate many times during just one day, much like the leaves of a tree; they will never all stay still for a whole day. There will always be at least a bit of wind hitting them, causing them to move.

The branches connecting the leaves to the trunk of the tree absorb and reduce the movement of the wind hitting the leaves, until there is almost no movement so very little of the energy reaches the trunk. The branches become thicker, and stronger as they get closer to the trunk, and this helps to lessen the impact of the wind. The branches act as your informed thoughts and decisions. They represent what you have thought through, such as a way to deal with something that is hurting you.

The trunk of the tree is very thick and strong, and never moves very much. It will sway when there is strong wind. The trunk represents your inner self; the things that cannot be changed easily. When wind hits a tree, it will not automatically snap a trunk. It will take a strong wind and for a period of time to weaken the trunk enough for it to snap, and this does not occur often. If you think about how often there is wind blowing on a tree, you'll notice that a tree trunk very rarely snaps due to wind.

Roots are the part of trees that are often not considered, as we cannot see them, but they are still there and arguably the most important feature for the survival of a tree. I compared the roots of a tree to a person's connection to the world. Although it is not always seen, or felt by the individual, the connection is always there and much stronger than we could ever imagine.


As wind impacts a tree, the force is reduced as it gets closer to the trunk. This is very similar to what happens when something impacts someone's emotions. Let's say something bad happens to someone, like a friend betrays them, this will represent the wind. A person may show that they are upset or annoyed with the friend, and these emotions will be visible to anyone the person is in contact with. The person may react instinctively, but after some time of being able to think, their actions and thoughts about the situation will be much more considered than when the event occurred. This is the branches doing their job. They are allowing control to be regained over the situation. As time passes by, and the person thinks and acts in more sensible and considered ways, the possible movement in the trunk is reduced to almost nothing. Their core beliefs will not be altered much; they will still believe in what they believed in before, for example, they will continue to believe that killing is wrong, or still follow their religion as before, and most of their core beliefs will be unchanged. Their core belief of friendship will be slightly altered though. As the trunk sways ever so slightly, so do our core beliefs. It is very rare for all of our beliefs to be 'snapped' and turned around, but with enough wind, it can be done.

I've always had a love of nature, particularly trees, and I think that it is only now that I am understanding why that has always been the case.