用你自己的方式，慢慢站穩。
講起安穩，我們想像的，常常是像樹那樣，有一條往下紮得很深的根，深到地面怎麼晃都不會動搖。但黑雲杉並不是這樣生長的。
它長在泥炭沼澤上。那樣的地方終年積水，泥炭層底下缺氧，根往下走不了多深就無法呼吸。所以它沒有發展出一條深的主根，而是把根淺淺地橫向鋪開，鋪得比看起來遠很多，細根在上層的泥炭與苔蘚裡慢慢織成一片。
這支原精的氣味，剛好也是這樣。它不是我們熟悉的針葉冷香，而是像果醬一般的濃甜，中段透著蜂蜜，再往下會出現焦糖的氣味。但認真感受下去，針葉的氣息並沒有消失，只是退到後面。尾段剩下樹脂的厚度，放很久都還在。香氣有重量，但不是向下沉，而是橫向的厚度，像走進一片遼闊的森林。
我們心裡那個安穩的樣子，常常也是那條深的主根——一份做到老的工作、一段不會改變的關係，彷彿有了這些才算有根。但不是每個人腳下，都有那樣的土。有些人的安穩不是集中在一處，是向旁邊攤開的。攤得開，就不必把全部重量交給某一處。安穩不只一種，看你站在甚麼土上。
如果最近你覺得自己哪裡都沒有紮得很深，先不用急著懷疑自己。不妨在香氣裡停一停，讓那片橫向鋪開的厚度陪你坐一會。黑雲杉在這樣的土上可以活到一兩百年，靠的從來不是深度，是接觸的面積。不必紮得很深，也可以站得很穩。
以香為語，安在當下。
Spread out, and stand.
When we speak of steadiness, what we picture is usually a tree: a single root driven far down, deep enough that however the ground shifts above it, nothing moves. Black spruce does not grow that way.
It grows on peat bogs. Such ground stands in water all year, and below the surface of the peat there is no air; a root cannot travel far down before it can no longer breathe. So it never put out one deep root. It laid its roots out sideways instead, shallow, and far wider than the tree looks, the fine ones working slowly through the upper peat and moss until they have woven a single mat.
The scent of this absolute runs the same way. It is not the cool needle note we know; it is a thick sweetness, like jam, with honey showing through the middle of it and, further down, caramel. Stay with it, though, and the needles have not gone anywhere. They have only stepped back. At the close, what is left is the thickness of resin, still there long afterwards. The scent has weight, but it does not sink. Its weight lies sideways, like walking into a wide, open forest.
The steadiness we hold in mind is usually that deep root too — a job to grow old in, a relationship that will not change, as though only these counted as having roots. But not everyone has that kind of ground underfoot. For some, steadiness is not gathered in one place; it is laid out sideways. Laid out, it need not give all its weight to any one point. Steadiness comes in more than one kind. It depends on the ground you stand on.
If you have felt lately that you are not deeply rooted anywhere, do not be quick to doubt yourself. Pause a while in the scent, and let that sideways thickness sit with you. Black spruce can live a century or two on ground like that, and what holds it has never been depth but the area it touches. You need not root deeply to stand firm.
𝘽𝙚 𝙋𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩, 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙪𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙩.