Wise Words at Capernwray

This was actually written on Wednesday, May 29. 

           I tried to read this morning, but kept getting distracted. So I hadn’t finished as many pages as I would have liked when I went down for coffee break at 10:40, but I figured maybe a break and a cup of coffee would help clear my head a little. I sat down at a table, drinking my coffee quietly, and a kind, motherly British woman named Nicky—who just came up and hugged me the first day I was at Capernwray because she knew I was new—sat down next to me. She was talking to some other people at the table at first, but eventually I joined in a conversation she was having that was originally about sheep but somehow turned to giraffes in Kenya. A few people left and so, in way of continuing the conversation, I asked her how often she’d been to Kenya. We talked about her ministry trips there for a bit before the conversation turned to how selfish and materialistic we can be as human beings, and how we all might be better, less selfish people if we took six months or a year of service somewhere in the world. The class guilt that I’ve struggled with all my life—growing up in Ecuador, and then even more recently in this past year of playing Rachel Corrie—began to resurface, and I began to think of how privileged and undeserving I feel to be studying for twelve weeks in Europe this summer. I mentioned something to that effect, and then Nicky said something that I needed very much to hear and that I will likely remember for years to come.

            “We’re all trees, you see. And sometimes, as we’re growing, especially in the beginning, we have to do things and have experiences that help us to put down strong roots that branch out before we become truly strong and full-grown. Because a spindly tree with no roots can be knocked over by—a sheep that rubs up against it. But if you take the time and opportunities you have to grow those roots, that’s when you become strong, and nothing can come against you or knock you over. And once you have a strong trunk, then your branches can grow out wide and strong too, giving fruit and providing shelter to others. And we’re all different, you know. Some grow to be the tall trees that take the lightning; some don’t grow very tall but spread their branches out wide; and some will always have to be supported by sticks and wires; but we all serve a purpose. And God knows that.”