knobby tree

I'm not sure if this happens to everyone, but my brain tends to create metaphors from things I see in nature. This tree trunk, for example. It's gnarly, and knobby, and not what I would consider to be an ideal foundation, but that didn't prevent it from growing tall and strong and taking up a commanding position on top of the hill. My brain: "even though there may be flaws in the foundation, that doesn't mean you can't build something really impressive on top of it."
​
"Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach of us more than we can ever learn from books."
-John Lubbock