If you are Thoreau-ly confused by the title, or didn’t have Breakfast at Tiffany’s,  listen not to the silence, but the impact of life.…and if there is any doubt, remember Barbara Walters confirmed it during  her Kate Hepburn interview…and by the way, I think she was an Oak.

Trees and the human race that relaxes and seeks shelter under them, seem to be bound by more than open space – and if you think about it, you will see I am not barking up the wrong one. How many times I might ask, have you questioned your family tree…or maybe just the nuts and fruits falling from it. Have you ever pulled up your roots and branched out in an unfamiliar direction, or just stayed where you were, throwing loving shade to those in your life?

Once the seed of life is planted, along with glorious ideas of being parents, we wait to see that first limb emerge, watching as it grows in our garden, often disappointed isn’t the Eden we hoped it would be. No matter how hard we try in this life or how strong we become, there is also a constant fear that we will be cut down before accomplishing our dreams. Nevertheless, we can always turn over a new leaf, and continue our pursuit of happiness season after season.

As we pursue this elusive brand of hope called “happiness,” it is always good to collect a few squirrel friends along the way, reminding us that even if times are tough, there are no rings to testify to our age and mistakes, unless of course you have been married more than a few times. Indeed, sometimes having the right people parked around you is a tree-mendous gift.

All puns aside, the very core of our learning and imagination ( not counting that tree of knowledge snaking through a certain biblical tale) have come from putting  pen to paper, and just where did that paper come from? I don’t think it is a run of the mill coincidence that the roots of our knowledge, come from the very roots of the earth. What we share with the life around us is more than just space, and sometimes when you stop and listen, even if no one else is around, you hear it in your soul.

There might not always be a sound when a tree falls, but we have the chance to listen and hear those who fall around us, a difference that needs to be celebrated. Just as trees breathe life into our air; it is up to us to breathe it into one another. Reach out today, get to the root of a problem, plant some new ideas or hope and offer shelter or rest to someone in need. Life isn’t always a banquet – most times it is a picnic, which has been put together with what and who we find around us…so look! There is no coincidence in the master landscape of life, and as the lyrics sing in Woodstock….. “We got to get ourselves back to the garden…..”

Unless you have been living in another universe, you cannot have avoided the musical phenomenon of Frozen. The song “Let it Go” has been done on YouTube by Marines, cartoons, animals and parents, along with a few little kids in the mix. The catchy lyrics build up to such a self-empowering climax, that for many, a trip to yoga can be happily avoided! Reaching that inner nirvana, that inner Rosie the Riveter, saying I Can Do it! Is something that crosses more than animated lines and musical scores – Kudos to Disney for again breathing life into our lives.

However, past the colorful three minutes of musical therapy and the sisterhood of icy emotions, most of us do need to face frozen factors, which take up too much space in our lives. We all have them, some are photographs, some are just memories, and others are moments and people that brought and lived events with us. Looking back, we always re-connect to ourselves and not the people or events, forever wishing, regretting or finding blame for not doing more, wanting to have kept something together or worst of all, being the one left behind and refusing to accept it. The chill from such self-deprecation leave us frozen to the warmth around us and that yet to come, it also needs to be chipped away and melted.

There isn’t a love story yet, where someone isn’t holding out a hand wanting to reach another, make something right, be there, or obviously…be loved. Even as Scarlett held dirt in her hand, gaining strength from Tara and vowing to make life right again, she was actually defrosting the moments that had kept her prisoner, that kept her from moving forward and kept her from being who she really was…all because she wanted something that was never hers in the first place. In a world where corporations demand that their employees OWN IT! And political enthusiasts preach taking back what is ours; too many times life remains frozen in the warm comfort zone we have become acclimated to existing in. More than ever, the time has come for us to move the rocks, crush the confines and melt the emotions holding us back.

Each day we are given 24 hours to make a difference… that is if we forgo sleep. That means somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 hours, we have the chance to be the best we can, love unconditionally, help one another, and if we are lucky, make a difference. Tomorrow we start it all over again, and hopefully some of what we did will have passed to another and the process continues. However, looking back and holding on to frozen what if moments or events, that can never be changed and have no bearing on what we do in the moment are wrong and need to be let go!

Wouldn’t it be wonderful, if the news reporting social media didn’t go back and rehash events filled with pain, spawning additional violence for the sake of ratings? How calming the world would be if everyone moved past what caused pain and decided to make a difference for not just themselves, but for those around them by filling the grooves in the road, and offering a smooth path of possibility for the next day.

Like humans, animals remember incidents that caused them pain, but they also offer unconditional hope for sharing love and moving ahead. Sometimes we are too smart for our own good, thinking that with enough effort, we can “fix” what we deem to be broken, and reclaim or fit ourselves into situations we have been frozen out of. That is so wrong; instead we need to use that intelligence and let it go! Accept what we have, and take the next allotment of time to see what is out there waiting to change us and what we can offer.

Water isn’t just our life force it is a mirror of life!  It can be boiled, left standing stagnant, evaporated and of course frozen, however, the best version is when the tide comes in and erases the sand, ready for another chance. So, as you surf the Internet today or get your feet wet in something new… LET IT GO! and become empowered to what you never dreamed possible.