The thought occurred to me one day…maybe the big, tangled knot of the world’s troubles unravels down to something incredibly simple: people just won’t get out of each other’s way. Worse yet, we step on others’ ideas all the time, usually holding a watering can rather than wielding a club. What we mean to prune, we end up choking. Then, because we’ve been taught that pruning is the only way to tend a garden, we mistake our own shade for shelter. 

Even when we think we’re simply disagreeing with a passing comment, to others, it can feel like we stomped on their very soul. Still, others insist that it should be the default, and everything else is an exotic deviation or, worse, entirely in error. But again, rarely are their intentions malicious.

So often in Nature, larger trees, often not on purpose, cast too much shadow. They spread their roots wide, soaking up all the water. They’re convinced their way of growing is the only way, leaving little room for the smaller shoots to find their own light. 

Just like trees, each of us needs space to grow at our own pace, forge our own paths in our own ways, whether we’re meandering or on a direct course. Such artificial boundaries are recognized by no natural force or being other than fellow humans. 

You can walk near or even alongside someone. But we must respect their journey, their personal space, and their various ways. Walking near someone doesn’t require sharing their canopy. We can share the path alongside them without crowding the sun. Most of the time, we just need to let people walk their own paths, especially if they aren’t harming themselves or anyone else in the process.

Too often we forget that beneath the invisible lines we draw on maps and during meetings, the ground is still breathing. Beneath the words we trade each day, another root system is quietly reaching. Peace won’t be harvested by flattening the soil or forcing every shoot to lean the same way. It grows in the gaps we deliberately leave: the pauses, the withheld corrections, and the quiet respect for branches that reach in different directions. To do so, we just need to gently step aside more often and let things be.

~ Amelia Desertsong