015 In It, Not Of It
Hey Mangrove, you stand in salt water your whole life, keeping the salt out at your roots, or pushing it out through your leaves.
How do you live in it without becoming it?
How do you live in a hard place without becoming hard yourself?
On the edge of the sea, where most trees would die, a forest stands in salt water. Its roots arch out of the mud like legs.
This is a mangrove. It has lived its whole life in water that would kill almost any other tree.
What really happens
Salt is poison to most plants. Mangroves survive in two clever ways. Many keep the salt out at their roots, filtering the water before it rises. Some let the salt in and then push it out through tiny glands on their leaves.
Either way, they live in the salt without letting it take over.
How we know: Plant scientists have studied mangrove salt tolerance for decades; salt crystals can be seen on the leaves of some kinds.
The turn
Some of us work in salty places: harsh offices, unkind cities, difficult homes. It is easy to slowly become like them.
The mangrove shows another way. Stay where you must. Filter what you take in.
Three takeaways
- You can live in a hard place without becoming hard.
- Decide what you let in.
- What does get in, you can still push out.
Stand in the salt. Don't drink it.
The world of sense can no more stain his soul / Than waters mar th' enamelled lotus-leaf.