What growing a cedar taught me about resilience and patience

Have you ever tried to grow a tree from its fruits or cones and watched the vulnerable seedling becoming a little tree after a long period of slow growth?

I love to take seeds and cones from my favorite plants and try to cultivate them at home. These are often seeds from plants which grow in special places that are dear to my heart.
Once I collected a cone from a cedar at the shoreline of the wild Atlantic Ocean.
Its trunk was so big, knotty branches which have seen and endured many storms.

I was so happy when I saw the first little green needles in my pot on the windowsill.
When spring and summer came I took the little cedar out into the garden, gave it a new pot and soil.
In four years the cedar grew to a nearly one meter tree.
One autumn I decided that the cedar should be resilient enough to stay outside during winter.
We had a very mild winter that year but in the last days we got cold and strong frosty nights that left my cedar poor-looking.
In the following spring I waited for new green needles, but they went all brown instead.

Sometimes you think that all your care and commitment for something is enough to overcome any obstacle, that all the love and passion you put into a project must bear fruits at the end.
But sometimes it doesn’t.
Sometimes you need to learn more, work on your skills further, skills to adapt to change and hard times.

In my childhood I was often told that I needed to grow a thicker skin.
But what if you need a better environment for that in the first place?
What if it is necessary to grow your skills and resilience in an environment that is more compassionate, caring and encouraging?
An environment that helps you adapt to change in small steps, carefully and gradually?
What if becoming resilient is a matter of time, a slow transformation and not the plunge into the cold water that can leave you traumatized?

My little cedar wasn’t adapted enough to a harsh climate.
It didn’t grow thick green needles to endure a tough time.
I needed to adapt it to the cold more slowly.

Good and important things in life need time, determination, care and a lot of patience.
They need you to grow into a resilient person.

As a tree needs years and the best conditions to grow into a huge tree, so do you.
Don’t judge yourself for not being as tough as others or not being where they are.
Resilience is built through going on a lifelong journey.

We are all on different journeys, in different environments and conditions and sometimes you also need a bit of luck.

P.S. This winter I’ve tried to grow another cedar from cones I brought home from the Atlantic Ocean.
Four months of waiting and nothing to see, until today, there were the first green needles growing in the direction of the sun.