Take a deep breath and let it out. You’re sitting on your couch, your bed, or your floor, but you swear you’re in the world in your hands. Be it a book. Be it a video game. You feel the breeze on your face. Fly through the skies, jump out an airlock, stand on a cliff and overlook the castle. Whatever the setting. Whatever the purpose. You’re right there and it’s totally worth it.

Take another deep breath and a smile finds your face. Reach out your hand, feel the grass on the plains. Take the controls of a racing car. Run over villains and shoot for the stars. Search for the princess in a far off land. Save the galaxy with the force in your hand. Purge the plague. Find the impostor. Search for a bunker where your families been fostered.

Such magic there is in the fantasy world. Such adventure and wonder. Dreams that are pearled. Anything is possible. That is what it teaches. Anything is possible, if you just believe it. Be braver. Be inspired. Take the real world by the horns. Just like your hero wrestling the thorns.

So, thanks to the wonder and the belief in magic. Thanks to the escape and the world that has it. So when you’re off on adventure as a swordsman, a gunner. I hope you never lose that wonder.

I couldn’t tell you if I read it in an article or heard it from somewhere, but years ago, I heard about (or read about) a facility that was trying to create an artificial environment or ecosystem. Something that if humanity wanted to expand to other planets and begin space exploration, we’ve be able to build an environment where we could survive. They planted trees, created a stable cycle of carbon dioxide and oxygen exchange, had running water, and the basic necessities.

Yet, the environment failed.

The reason it failed is because it had no wind. The trees grew, but eventually they grew so big, they couldn’t bear their own weight. There was no wind to tone their bark and teach them to be strong.

Now, because it’s been so long since I read or heard about this. I don’t actually know if this facility was real or not. Probably, but I can’t tell you what the facility was, who ran it, or where it was located. All I can tell you is that trees need wind.

I have my own evidence to back it up.

I’m growing pecan trees. I’ve got five total that I’ve been growing since 2019. Two have been planted in the ground and have faced the elements for about a year now. The others have been hanging out in the garage under a plant light.

Each tree has a stick beside it to help it grow straight and help the outside trees face the storms that roll into town. They’ve had the sticks for a least a year, and just the other day, I took the sticks off. The ones outside, enduring the weather, remained straight while the ones in the garage sagged under the weight of their leaves.

Though the inside trees remained safe from the elements and squirrels, as soon as I removed the sticks, they slumped over. This spring, I noticed the inside trees grew leaves faster than the outside trees. Makes me think the outside trees spent more energy improving their trunks against the wind while the inside trees–facing no wind–put their energy in growing their leaves, and when their support was taking away, they couldn’t handle their leaves anymore.

This isn’t a true scientific experiment. These are just some observations I’ve had while growing these pecan trees. If I really wanted to test the fact that trees need wind, I would’ve made my old science teachers proud by going through the whole scientific process, but I don’t have time for that. I’m just letting the trees grow where I have room for them.

I honestly think it’s awesome that trees need wind to be strong. Nature is so interconnected and fascinating, I often wonder if humanity will ever understand every part of it. The wind itself has so many roles in nature and yet, we don’t often think about it unless we’re hearing it howl with an oncoming storm.

What I love most about this whole “trees need wind” fun fact is the deeper lesson. Trees need to be tested in order become stronger. They need to stand in the wind if they’re going bear their own weight and produce delicious nuts, fruits, flowers, or other. They need to be strengthened if they’re going to serve their purpose.

Same could be said for us. We need to stand in the wind if we’re going to become stronger. Face the trials that could bend and beat us so we can become strong enough to carry the fruit we produce, the roles we play.

If trees can do it, we can too.

A funny thing happened to me this week. I got accused of being too hopeful. Now, if you know me. You’ll know I’m a stressor, a worrywart, and an anxious bundle of curly hair that doesn’t like change. Yet, I was driving with a coworker the other day and we were talking work stuff. There’s a lot of things up in the air at my work. A great potential for a lot of change that it has some people on edge. Every workplace has a rumor mill and mine is no different. People talk because they want to understand what’s going to happen. Who’s going to stick around. What challenges are we going to face? They want to be prepared for what comes our way. Sometimes, its the only thing people talk about.

Then there’s me.

The way I see it, I just got full time, I’m not going anywhere. Things are changing and I can’t stop them. All I can do is roll with them and take them a day at a time. The team I’m a part of proved just yesterday that we can handle ourselves. We may not have all the answers in the moment, but we get stuff done.

I was impressed with the way things worked out yesterday and proud of the team as well. We got our animal routines done early and that left the afternoon open for projects. Yet, before we could head off, someone pips up with an “Oh…guys…we’re supposed to do this task (that everyone forgot about) today.” We had to do it that day because that’s when forklift guy said he could help us. The task was to retrieve a really heavy thing from one building and move it to another so it could be used there.

We got to work. Someone called forklift guy to make sure he could help us. We had to go into another animal team’s area, so I called them to make sure it was alright for us to come down–they were thrilled. They wanted the heavy thing gone from their building. Then we realized the truck we currently have wasn’t going to handle the heavy thing, so we needed to needed to see if a loaner truck was available. It worked out because the team that was using the loaner truck was driving it up to drop it off when we called them.

So, we had the forklift guy on the way, the other animal team notified, and the truck that we needed. We loaded up and escorted ourselves through the zoo to pick up the heavy thing. The other animal team had our object ready to go when we arrived. We got the truck in place. Forklift guy moved the object to the truck, we secured it, and the other animal team waved goodbye and told us to never bring that object back to their area as we drove away.

We got the heavy thing in place at one of our buildings just in time for closing.

What may happen in the next few days, weeks, or months may be completely up in the air. We could lose team members. Routines may change. Dynamics could shift. It could very well be a difficult transition. Yet, I think about days like yesterday how we handled a task we forgot about and how everything fell into place for us to get that task done. It all worked out and we worked well together.

I guess that’s one of the reasons why I’m hopeful moving forward. No matter the changes, I’m sure everything will be alright. We can take it a day at a time and handle the changes as they come up, because we’re capable. There’s no use stressing over it, after all, when all you can control is you.

I hope you find yourself guilty of being too hopeful moving forward. It’s a good way to stand out.