The Photo

The tree is lonely and knows it is different. Still, it is the most attractive tree of them all. It is green, while all the others are pale. It looks fragile, but powerful. The others look strong, but rigid.

And who do you want to be? That one tree, of course. Not the other ones. It looks secure, loved and content. Which is exactly where we all want to be.

Notice something. The tree has a secret at the core of its being. There are two stems, not one. It takes a while to notice, but it perfectly illustrates The Power of One: That loneliness can be a source of personal empowerment when God strengthens us, from within, to persevere with joy.

Now let me tell you the story behind my choice of this photo for the cover of The Power of One:

For ten years I had the world’s best massage therapist. His hands are as big and as sturdy as frying pans, and he convinced me that no preventive medicine is better than regular massages.

I am entirely convinced that the world would be a better place if we all had a massage therapist like that.

But let me tell you one more thing. The most important mark his hands left on me was an even deeper conviction about something else. That the human body is the exact point in this universe where love culminates.

And so it happened that one day, half way through a massage, I turned my body over, placed my forehead on the rest, and looked down at the floor. Only to find this photo, of a tree, placed on the floor for me to contemplate.

I was finishing The Power of One at the time, and the symbolic power of this photo flew right in my face. It was an incredibly precise expression of what I was trying to convey in that book.

The tree is everything at once. Different. Attractive. Powerful. Loved. Fragile. Content. Secure. Seen.

Why would anyone ever want more than that?

To think that one precise shot with a camera can replace years of reflection and writing!