Spiral Grain of Time

Have you ever had a problem that you just keep revisiting over time? Many think of this as "linear time" bouncing back and forth between the present and the past, or of “not being able to let go of a problem. But what if, like trees and many plants, "time" grows like a spiral grain of a plant?

Many trees and plants grow in a spiral path or develop a spiral grain. This adaptation increases flexibility, helping them withstand high winds and heavy snow without breaking. Spiral growth also aids in better nutrient and water distribution throughout the trunk.  Spiral grain is more able to twist, rock and roll with the wind than straight-grained branches so that a branch is less likely to break. It also allows branches to more easily bend and move when burdened.

Rather that "revisiting problems" being a matter of moving back and forth from present to past events, think of it like the spiral growth of a tree. When the tree has an insult, say a nail driven into the tree, the tree is injured but not necessarily damaged. It continues to function normally.  It continues to grow. It continues its growth in its spiral pattern until it again returns to the injury. It continues to grow AROUND the injury. It slows down to grow AROUND the nail. Notice the dark wood in the image of the nail in the tree. The wood cells grow TO the nail, then follows its outline AROUND the nail. Eventually time keeps brining the cells back to the nail and the wood keeps growing AROUND the injury. With the passage of enough time the tree eventually has incorporated the nail INTO its structure. 

So, when you KEEP returning to old injuries it is not that you are continually revisiting past insults to suffer, it is more like a tree growing through the spiral of time. You revisit old injuries to learn new lessons from them and to grow around the injury until it is completely healed and incorporated within you.

 

Kind of brings a new perspective of time, life, and spirals.