Tree or Tumbleweed?

Blog – 8/28/17small tumbleweed

Written by Cynthia McIntosh
Success With McIntosh


So, I asked a question this week. Did you see it? What did you think when you read it? Let me guess…

Was it, “HUH?!”?

Well, let me quickly explain the question, and then maybe it will make sense, and hopefully it might even get you thinking.

The question was, “Are you a tree, or a tumbleweed?”

So, a tumbleweed. Let’s start there. What is a tumbleweed? Well, it’s not much really. It’s a piece of “whatever”, that blows around wherever it happens to be blown, picking up more “whatever” that it passes along the way, until it eventually crashes into something…


where it gets stuck.

Ever feel like a tumbleweed? I will admit, I have. I’d run around doing what had to be done, putting out fires, making everyone happy as much as I could (and failing miserably, I might add), controlled by whatever was going on around me, whatever people said or thought, how I felt, and basically being blown around wherever my circumstances sent me. And since circumstances, how I felt, how people felt, and priorities change with the direction of the wind, I was constantly feeling like I was just getting blown around and completely out of control.

A tree, on the other hand, has roots. Some deeper than others. I heard someone recently say that the Redwood trees grow to be hundreds of feet tall, but their roots only go down three feet! However, they go down three feet, then spread out and wrap themselves around the roots of the other trees around them. What happens then is that when big storms hit, they hit against the whole forest, not individual trees, so the trees are very strong – and remain unharmed. In fact, he went on to say that there are trees in the Redwood Forest that have been dead for years, but are still standing, because the other trees around them are holding them up!!! (I think there is a lesson in there somewhere for us as well. But I’ll save that for another blog.) Isn’t that fascinating?!


My point though, is that a tree has roots. It digs deep into the ground. I live to become more like a tree and less like a tumbleweed. I want to have strong roots, a solid foundation, to know who I am, to stand strong on what I believe in, and to live life with conviction and passion. I want to be a tree that produces fruit for others, shelter, comfort, and beauty.

The thing about a tumbleweed is that it rolls around picking up more and more junk (negative things people say, bitterness, frustration, anger…) along the way, and becoming more and more dangerous to those in its path.

So now, what are you…
A tree, or a tumbleweed?
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