027 Guard the One Bud
Hey Coconut Palm, you have just one growing bud, high at your crown. Keep it safe and you stand for decades. Lose it, and you can never grow again.
What in us must we never let rot?
What is the one thing in you that you must never let rot?
Look up at a coconut palm. At the very top, between the great fronds, a single pale spear points straight at the sky.
That one spear is the palm's whole future.
What really happens
Unlike most trees, a coconut palm has only one growing bud, at its crown. It cannot grow side branches to replace it.
If that bud is protected, the palm can stand for decades. If it rots or is damaged, the palm cannot grow again.
How we know: Plant scientists and farm extension services, such as the University of Florida, describe how bud rot kills palms for this reason.
The turn
Most of us have one thing like that: our integrity, our health, our core relationships, our sense of who we are.
Everything else can be cut and regrown. That one thing, if it rots, takes everything with it.
Three takeaways
- Know your one growing bud.
- Protect it more carefully than anything else.
- Everything else can be replaced. That cannot.
Guard the crown, and the palm will stand.
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.