We got a new tree. It’s a crepe myrtle and in the weeks between ordering it and actually obtaining the tree I would notice all the other crepe myrtles in our neighborhood. There are many. Some have multiple trunks, others only one. They bloom flowers, pink, purple, white. Their height seems to vary as well as the span of their branches. 

I’ve found myself wondering about the shape of these trees. We already had one in our yard. Even now I can see clear differences in the appearances, beyond one being young and one being more advanced in age. Their trunk height is different as well as their color and number of branches. What determines these differences and why? 

The differences in each of these trees' appearances brought me to think about the difference in our appearance. How boring a crepe myrtle would be if each tree was shaped and colored the same. How bland if each trunk had the same circumference. Branches each exactly the same dimensions. 

I think about my appearance a lot. More than is respectable, I’m sure. I’m vain. I am aware of the standards of beauty that we have created and just how I fit in and fall short of them. There are few times in my life that I can remember being perfectly content with my weight. There isn’t a time I didn’t have less than one thing I would change about my appearance if given the option. This is not to say I am constantly discontent with my exterior but it is to say, there is always a standard I am aware of and just how close to or from it I am. 

And then I think, how boring if we all looked the same. If our trunk size was the same. If our flowers all bloomed the same color and at the same time. There is beauty and deliberate thought into how we are designed. The shapes we are created in should be appreciated as a strength and not a weakness.