The gray areas in life require acceptance and adaptability to be able to move forward. When things are all one way or another, it’s difficult to see all the alternatives or possibilities. Typically branches getting trapped in the trunk make knots in trees. Whether the branches are dead or alive, they are catalysts that create this anomaly. Trees take in whatever impales them, becoming a part of them forever and growing around it. I use the knot in the tree as a symbol for being “in the middle” and living in the gray. This something I have learned to do and by continuing to live with an open mind, I gain and learn more. I take what comes, good or bad, and it becomes a part of me; embracing things in a positive way and then growing on like the nature of a tree.