LET IT GROW; TAG’s tips for travel no.49

Summary

The article "LET IT GROW; TAG’s tips for travel no.49" discusses the importance of embracing growth and healing after disasters, drawing parallels between the resilience of California Redwoods and personal human experiences.

Abstract

The article reflects on the inevitability of disasters and the certainty of messes in life and travel, emphasizing the need for acceptance and the allowance of healing processes to unfold naturally. It draws inspiration from the California Redwoods, which require the extreme heat of wildfires to germinate, suggesting that personal growth often emerges from trauma. The author, Brett Jenae, encourages readers to choose growth actively, despite the instinct to fight, freeze, or flee during hardships. By practicing growth and self-care, individuals can create a space to endure trauma and reframe their experiences positively.

Opinions

Disasters and messes are part of life, and acceptance is key to healing.
Growth is often painful, and opportunities for it tend to arise at inopportune times.
The author believes that extreme circumstances, like wildfires for redwoods, are necessary for personal growth and achievement.
People hold the potential for a good life within them, which can be realized by choosing growth over instinctual reactions to trauma.
The practice of growth and self-care can provide a nurturing environment to cope with and accept difficult truths.
The author, Brett Jenae, advocates for a proactive approach to growth, viewing it as a form of celebration and self-care.
The article suggests that by embracing growth, individuals can rewrite their narratives with kindness and constructive reflection.

LET IT GROW; TAG’s tips for travel no.49

Disasters are inevitable; messes are certain. We may not be unflappable, but we can be undeterred! Step by step, we find acceptance in arriving (think: I AM HERE) and allowing the process of healing to continue as it will. In travel and in life, we can learn to “let it go” as we LET IT GROW.

The cone in this picture is lovely and indeed small. It holds the seeds of one California Redwood that lives along Muir Woods just North of San Francisco. Redwoods are grand in stature. They are impressive and gorgeous life-forms who drop seeds and grow like poetry.

The majority of redwood seeds that drop every year don’t grow. They are like a box with a key, stuck in seed form, locked until disaster strikes. And I do mean disaster. Extreme heat from devastating wildfires cleans the forest floor, opens the cone and begins the germination process of these beautiful tree babies.

Isn’t that how it is though? I know I’ve tried to understand why it hurts so much to grow. I’ve come up with this: beyond the emotional strain of transformation, many times our opportunities for growth come when we least want them. When disaster strikes, it is counterintuitive to continue slogging down the same path or to make a new, brave choice. When disaster strikes, we are wired to fight, freeze or flee.

We hold the seeds of our good life in the palm of our hand. We plant them in times of light, plenty and acceptance, but sometimes it is the darkness of trauma that disturbs the thick seed casings of our greatest achievements. This means, my fellow Anxious Cohorts, that we must choose growth when we can. We must turn from our fighting, freezing, fleeing ways and say, “I am ready.” Not because we feel it, but because we want it to be so.

Whether we choose to let it go and then let it grow or to let it grow and then let it go, we can be confident that the practice of one fuels and provides a manageable, yet cozy, decadent space for the other. By practicing growth as a celebration and self-care as a nonnegotiable, we will endure all manner of trauma. We may even accept our terrible truths and rewrite the telling of our experience as positive, or at the very least, with kind, constructive reflection. I hope that for you today.

Big Love & Happy Travels,

Brett Jenae, The Anxious Girl