When a friend calms me down

Imagine this. You are in a gas chamber for two hours, forced to listen to banterings, threats, empty promises and walkthroughs of statuses that you know are false. After suffering this ordeal – called meeting – you come out of the chamber and gasp for breath.

Frantically trying to escape this corporate jungle where man eats man, you jump from your desk seat and veer to the corner only to be stopped by a glass panel. And out you see these fantastic friends in green.

These guys stand majestically and in all glory, smiling at you, from the 8th floor. They seem to say ‘Enough is enough. Have a breath, have a life. Don’t fight hard for the un-attainable. Just get along, carry on but with conviction like us. We are aliens in this concrete jungle like you are in the corporate’.

Yes, these friends are the trees planted on top of buildings, in the balconies and other places on buildings where there is  room, for Singapore doesn’t have room to plant trees. Hence the government mandated that if you build a high rise, you need to plant ‘N’ number of trees and maintain them. And that is part of the building approval process.

And therefore I get to interact with my green friends, on a daily basis, after every one of those ‘meetings’. Sometimes, even during meetings, these friends help me out. They often say,’Pacify, pacify, for there is nothing you get if you amplify. Be among the villains but stand your ground likewhat we do. Look at us.We stand tall among tall buildings yet maintain our serenity. We are are a jungle in another jungle , the concrete jungle but maintain our dignity.’

Profound words from profound creatures – trees, my friends.

Do you speak to trees and plants ? Do they help calm you ?