Rooted! Lessons on emotional resilience from a stubborn mesquite tree.
Long ago, in the faraway land of West Texas, someone once handed me the keys to a Kubota backhoe and said, “See all these mesquite trees? Pull ‘em up.” It was a dream come true! The little boy in me jumped at the chance. The steel! The dirt! The POWER! I was giddy. Until I attacked the first mesquite with my machine. Mesquite trees look like easy prey. They’re short, scrubby, and thin. They look like a stiff breeze could turn them into overgrown tumbleweeds, but they are deceptive devils. Their wood is nearly twice as hard as oak, and they have taproots that descend all the way into Hell. They do not give up easily.
Brandon Booth
July 30, 2024
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