Plant a Shade Tree
Dear Patient,
“Plant a shade tree under which you know you’ll never sit.”
That was the favorite saying of Spencer Boyd, the director of the summer camp I attended as a kid—fitting words to live by for someone who dedicated his life to making the world a better place for children.
I do a bit of shade tree planting in my own work. There are exceptions of course—the patients who see me week after week for years, or the babies whose cheeks I get to pinch after the parents’ long struggle with infertility.
But more often, a person will stay with me for a short while and move on once they feel better, my purpose fulfilled.
These are my shade tree patients.
Some of our most impactful work in life is shade tree planting, its significance fully realized only after we’re long gone. We are all planters of shade trees. What are you planting?
Love and gratitude,
Your Acupuncturist