Imagine if there was a cherry blossom tree, and spring was just starting. All of the trees around her started to grow beautiful flowers, and so did she. As the weather became warmer, more flowers grew all over her branches, until she became the most beautiful cherry blossom in her park.
One day though, she looked around and noticed the ground was littered with something. When the wind blew the soft pink petals up around her trunk. She saw, horrified, the petals of the trees around her littering the ground. Panicking, she held her flowers, holding stiff with every breeze, not releasing a single petal, in the beautiful weather.
The trees around her, that were much older and had gone through many years of flowers falling off, relaxed, and lost all of their petals, slowly drifting off into a peaceful rest, as green leaves spread all over their branches. But the one cherry blossom refused to rest, instead having her bark grow gnarled as she refused to relax.
A strong breeze blew through her branches one day. Though she tried as hard as she could her petals began to blow off in the wind. As they fell one by one, she felt how much lighter her branches were, and realized how tired she had become.
The tree began to relax more and more, as her petals fell off in great pink clouds that blew through her park. When the last petal fell, she relaxed completely, and finally rested as green leaves spread through her branches.
And as the years passed her gnarled and broken bark would remind her,
Sometimes you just have to let go.
