I've always loved trees and the way they stay rooted where they were planted in all weathers and all seasons. There's something re-assuring about them "just being there" and adapting to the conditions, bending with the wind, clinging to the cliff - whatever it may be.
I'm in the process of reviewing my past journals (with the intention of saving the good bits and throwing out all the past agonising!) Today I came across this quote from Thomas Merton:
"A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying him. The more a tree is like itself, the more it is like him. This particular tree will give glory to God by spreading out its roots in the earth and raising its branches into the air and the light in a way that no other tree before or after it ever did or will do."
