While walking in a forest I came across a man tied to a tree. He look afraid and agitated. I asked if he needed help to be freed?
He responded no! He had done this to himself to protect the tree from a lumberjack who has sworn to cut it down.
Looking at the abundance of trees in the forrest, the wanderer ask if the lumberjack has he said he is going to all these trees? The tied up man said no,just this one.

The wanderer then asked if there was anything special about this tree that was worth protecting. The man tied to it said no, other than the time he had invested in it. He goes onto to say that it was a fruiting tree, but never produces what the tree nursery promised. It is prone to pest and a lot of maintenance in fall.

The wanderer looking at other healthy trees bearing branches full of fruit just feet from the man chained to the sickly tree. Why don't you just go to one of those other trees asked the wanderer?

Because all my time and energy given to this tree would be for nothing. I won't have that lumberjack take that from me.

What is the sickly tree in your life that you have vowed to protect only because someone has made advances to take it from you?