Photo © Martha Brettschneider/Damselwings Photography
It’s been three weeks since my husband and I returned from our first visit to Australia. Yes, I have adorable photos of tree-hugging koalas and video of a mother kangaroo and her baby exchanging wet kisses.
But the image that lodged itself into my psyche and has continued to preoccupy me since our return is this tea-tree (or Leptospermum) seed pod. I encountered this feisty shrub in Flinder’s Chase National Park on Kangaroo Island, off the tip of South Australia.
Six years ago (December 2019-January 2020) wild fires burned 98 percent of the park to ashes. The visitors center and other infrastructure were completely destroyed. The landscape was a blackened moonscape.
Tea-tree Super Powers
Here’s the astonishing thing, though. Tea-trees (and many of their neighboring plants on Kangaroo Island) thrive in fire-prone environments. They require intense heat to trigger the release of seeds from their tough, woody pod.
As I learned from the park signage, “The seeds drop into nutrient-rich ash beds, shoot from the base and spring to life after rain falls and sunlight shines on the cleared ground. Large stands of tea-trees drop millions of seeds per hectare, ensuring the long-term survival of their species.”
A palpable sense of inspiration and hope washed over me as I looked around at the now lush, green, flourishing landscape of the park. Six short years was all it took to come back after the fire storm.
Lessons For Our Own Lives
The world feels like it’s on fire right now. As always, nature teaches us that we can transform the fire into strength, resilience, and the promise of a flourishing future.
The word “alchemy” keeps dropping into my path these first weeks of the new year, a quiet reminder that my inner work and daily practices have been preparing me—like the tea-tree’s patient seed pod—to meet this moment with fierce resolve, clarity, and trust. If you’re feeling the nudge to build your own resilience and inner steadiness, I invite you to book a quiet, no-pressure conversation with me here.
