不用變得強大，才能成為依靠
提起乳香，總讓人聯想起高大的樹木或神聖的建築，但肯亞黑乳香卻長不高。它大多只是一叢灌木，偶爾能夠長成小樹。它生在東非的旱地灌叢裡，腳下只有石礫與一層薄薄的泥土。
在那樣貧瘠的地方，它成為了很多人的依靠。
旱季裡草都枯了，山羊與駱駝就吃它的葉；樹皮可以剝下來煮茶；從樹身滲出來的樹脂，白得清亮的，當地人拿來當口香糖嚼；深色的那一種，點起來，一屋都是安定的煙氣。隨手折一段枝條下來，削一削，就是一把日常用的牙刷。
我們常常以為，要先變成強大的那一個，才有資格讓人靠過來。於是在覺得自己「還不夠」的時候，就習慣先退開一步，怕自己接不住別人的重量。
可是當別人需要你的時候，對方要的往往不是你的高度或成就，可能只是一句安慰的話，或者一個小忙。
能給予依靠的人，從來不是最龐大、最厲害的那一個，而是在對方需要的時候，剛好在場的那一個。
它的氣味沒有平常的乳香那麼清透，帶著一層舊皮革的深沉氣息，隱約透出一點檸檬皮的亮。
它沒有想像中的高度，神殿裡的那份神聖也不屬於它。
你也一樣，你不必先變得強大才能成為別人的依靠。你的存在，就已經很好了。
以香為語，安在當下。
𝘽𝙚 𝙋𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩, 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙪𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙩.
You can hold someone without being strong.
Say frankincense and what comes to mind is a tall tree, or a sacred building. The black frankincense of Kenya does not grow tall. Most of the time it is no more than a shrub, now and then rising into a small tree. It lives in the dry bushland of East Africa, with nothing underfoot but gravel and a thin layer of soil.
In ground as poor as that, it has become something a great many people rely on.
When the dry season has burnt off the grass, the goats and camels eat its leaves. Its bark is stripped and brewed as tea. Of the resin that seeps from the trunk, the clear white sort is chewed like gum; the dark sort is burnt, and a settling smoke fills the house. Break off a twig, pare it down, and you have a toothbrush for the day.
We tend to assume we must first become the strong one before we have any right to be leaned on. So when we feel we are "not enough yet", we have a habit of stepping back, afraid we could not take the weight of another person.
Yet when someone needs you, what they are after is rarely your stature or your achievements. It may be no more than a word of comfort, or a small favour.
It is never the biggest or the cleverest who gets leaned on. It is whoever is there when it matters.
Its scent lacks the clean transparency you expect of frankincense. There is a depth to it, of old leather, with a faint brightness of lemon peel coming through.
It has none of the height we imagine, and the sacredness of the temple was never its to carry.
The same goes for you. You do not have to become strong before you can be someone's support. Your presence alone is already enough.
Grounded in the present, spoken through scent.
𝘽𝙚 𝙋𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩, 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙪𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙩.