The Olive Tree | Viernes con una Letra
One of my favorite sites of the Andalucían countryside,
The olive trees
Below, a verse from a traditional Spanish song. Tío Gregorio El Borrico recorded it por alegrías...
Al olivo al olivo
al olivo subí
por cortar una ramita
del olivo caí
Up the olive tree
I climbed the olive tree
Because of a broken branch
I fell from the olive tree
This letra has me thinking and looking for lessons and signs.
As usual.
Do we climb the olive tree and see what happens? Or do we stay put? Do we look out for broken branches, so as not to fall? Or do we just acknowledge that branches will break, and we will fall and this will teach us how to get back up? Or do we do both?
I was feeling afraid of falling
Feeling afraid before last weekend's shows.
Mainly due to some skirt issues, but then it turned into a bit of a paranoia thing that I tried to let go of.
I fell several times, figuratively, but I got back up each time and carried on.
I don't love the falling. I don't love the mistake making, but I know it's part of the game. And I'm learning to become more and more accepting of this, even though it's still hard. I also know that the alternative is quite boring ... and unsatisfactory. (I write about falling in my book, so more on this to come.)
And speaking of my book,
And olive trees,
I sort of 'made friends' with an olive tree, well two, one live and the remains of another, last fall in Málaga. One looked like an olive tree, the other like a flamenco dancer. I visited them every day while finishing the first draft of my book and captured them in front of different backdrops. You can see pictures of them here.
By the way, the olive tree pictured above I found in Comares last fall.
Comments
What about you? Will you climb the olive tree? Tell me about a time you've fallen. Or how about a time you were afraid to fall so you avoided something altogether? Please leave a comment here.
(P.S. Thank you, Erica for the translation consultation.)