枯了一截，照樣長得上去
在太平洋西北岸的雨林裡，當你走到一棵西部側柏下面抬頭看，你會發現樹頂的那一截往往是枯掉的。灰白，乾淨，一片葉子都沒有。當樹生長到幾十米高之後，頂端就會受著狂風，一場風暴過後，主幹的頂就斷了，從此停止生長。
但這棵樹沒有因此而死去。原本長在另一側、較低的枝幹，會慢慢轉向上，接替成為新的樹頂。所以西部側柏常常不只一個樹頂，有些同時長著幾個，中間還夾著幾截早就枯掉的舊頂，遠看像一座燭台。
西部側柏精油，正是從心材蒸餾出來的。心材是樹最裡面、早已停止運輸水分的部分，嚴格來說不再活著，樹把耐久的成分沉積進去，讓它成為支撐整棵樹的骨架。香氣就來自那裡：乾燥的木質，一點微甜的辛香，像剛削過的鉛筆屑，也像打開一隻舊木箱的那一瞬間。尾段隱約透出清苦的涼意，沉穩而安靜。
我們生活上大概也有這樣的部分。一個做不下去的計劃，一段回不去的關係。它們就停在那裡，不會再有新的發展。而我們大多都會想著要再努力一下，或者要把整件事處理好。但西部側柏沒有把力氣花在枯掉的部分上面，也沒有刻意把它拿走。它只是繼續長還長得動的部分。
有時我們不必先修好一切，才繼續往前。
有些事就讓它留在那裡，然後繼續生長。
以香為語，安在當下。
A dead top is not a dead tree.
In the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest, when you come to stand beneath a western redcedar and look up, you find that the topmost stretch of it is very often dead. Grey-white, bare, not a single leaf left on it. Once the tree has grown to tens of metres, its top bears the full force of the gales, and after one storm the leader snaps off and grows no further.
But the tree does not die of it. A lower branch on the other side turns slowly upward and takes over as the new top. So a western redcedar often has more than one top; some carry several at once, with several long-dead old tops standing between them, so that from a distance the tree looks like a candelabra.
Arborvitae oil is distilled from the heartwood. The heartwood is the innermost part of the tree, where water long ago stopped moving, and strictly speaking it is no longer alive. The tree lays its lasting compounds down into it, and it becomes the frame that holds the whole tree up. The scent comes from there: dry and woody, with a little sweet spice to it, like shavings from a freshly sharpened pencil, and like the moment an old wooden chest is opened. At the close there is a faint cool bitterness, steady and quiet.
Most of us have a part like that in our lives. A plan that could not be seen through, a relationship there is no going back to. It has stopped where it is, and nothing new will come of it. And most of us will think we ought to try a little harder, or to put the whole thing right first. The redcedar spends nothing on the part that has died, and makes no effort to take it away. It simply goes on growing the parts that still grow.
Sometimes we need not put everything right before we carry on.
Some things can be left where they are, and we can go on growing.
𝘽𝙚 𝙋𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩, 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙪𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙩.