榆树的伤痕

有一个农场主为了方便拴牛，在庄园的一棵榆树上箍了一个铁圈。
随着榆树的长大，铁圈慢慢嵌进了树身，榆树的表皮留下一道深深的伤痕。
有一年，当地发生了一种奇怪的植物真菌疫病，方圆几十公里的榆树全部死亡，唯独那颗箍了铁圈的榆树却存活下来。
为什么这棵榆树能幸存呢？植物学家对此产生了兴趣，于是组织人员进行研究。结果发现，正是那个给榆树带来伤痕的铁圈拯救了它。因为从锈蚀的铁圈里吸收了大量铁份，所以榆树才对真菌产生了特殊的免疫力。
这是一个真实的故事，发生在上世纪五十年代美国的一个农场里。这棵树至今仍生长在美国密歇根州比犹拉县附近的那个农场里，充满生机和活力。
不仅是树，人也是如此。我们也许在生命中受过各种各样的伤害，但这些伤害又成为生命的一道养料，让生命变得更刚毅，更坚强，更充满生机、活力和希望。同时也让伤害成为一个警醒，让我们及时从迷惑中解脱。
没有人会无缘无故在你生命中出现。每一个在你生命里出现的人，都有甚深的因缘。爱你的人给了你感动，你爱的人让你学会奉献，你不喜欢的人教会你宽容与接纳，不喜欢你的人，促使你自省与成长。所以，如果你曾受过伤害，请感谢那些你认为伤害了你的人。
在人生的修行中，让我们接纳一切因缘，无论是顺缘，还是逆缘，都是我们必修的功课。让我们随缘、惜缘、了缘，历境炼心，自在而行。
Po Bronson, in his book WHY DO I LOVE THESE PEOPLE? (Random House, 2005), tells a true story about a magnificent elm tree. The tree was planted in the first half of the 20th Century on a farm near Beulah, Michigan (USA). It grew to be a magnificent tree.
In the 1950s, the family that owned the farm kept a bull chained to the elm. The bull paced around the tree, dragging a heavy iron chain with him, which scraped a trench in the bark about three feet off ground. The trench deepened over the years, though for whatever reason, did not kill the tree.
After some years, the family sold the farm and took their bull. They cut the chain, leaving the loop around the tree and one link hanging down. Over the years, bark slowly covered the rusting chain.
Then one year, agricultural catastrophe struck Michigan in the form of Dutch Elm Disease. It left a path of death across vast areas. All of the elms lining the road leading to the farm became infected and died. Everyone figured that old, stately elm would be next. There was no way the tree could last, between the encroaching fungus and its chain belt strangling its trunk.
The farm's owners considered doing the safe thing: pulling it out and chopping it up into firewood before it died and blew over onto the barn in a windstorm. But they simply could not bring themselves to do it. It was as if the old tree had become a family friend. So they decided to let nature take its course.
Amazingly, the tree did not die. Year after year it thrived. Nobody could understand why it was the only elm still standing in the county!
Plant pathologists from Michigan State University came out to observe the tree. They observed the scar left by the iron chain, now almost completely covered by bark and badly corroded.
The plant experts decided that it was the chain that saved the elm's life. They reasoned that the tree must have absorbed so much iron from the rusting chain, that it became immune to the fungus.
It's said that what doesn't kill you will make you stronger. Or, as Ernest Hemingway put it, "Life breaks us all, but afterwards, many of us are strongest at the broken places."
The next time you're in Beulah, Michigan, look for that beautiful elm. It spans 60 feet across its lush, green crown. The trunk is about 12 feet in circumference.
Look for the wound made by the chain. It serves as a reminder that because of our wounds, we can have hope! Our wounds can give us resources we need to cope and survive. They can truly make us strong.