Trees and Seeds

We are each as trees. We grow at our own pace. We should plant ourselves firm in the ground we occupy, not hurrying to spread our canopies further than they are at present. We should not insist that others do so either. A person's leaves may have grown brightly green, with long branches, straining out to reach each point they can, absorbing all the sunlight and air that they can with each moment, astounding the trees around them all the while.

But other trees stand small, brown, with few leaves with which to amaze. Some balk at such trees, "Grow faster! Grow taller! Grow quicker! Grow further up and out! Grow, grow, grow!" These trees may, and these trees may not. But we are not to place the weight of our comparisons to the mighty elms and oaks upon them. Let them grow in their own season. Do we question the frail, brown, dry mimosa when it sits year-round with not much to show? We do not, for we know that when it's season comes, and the spring air arrives, it will flourish and bloom a most beautiful bouquet of sights and colors, the likes of which are incomparable. The same applies to the other small trees. They may not have a season, but a year. And when it arrives, they, too, may flourish as a mimosa in March. But they also may not. They may sit there, unassuming, and unnoticed by those around them; but a small twig poking up from the dirt. The foolish may say, "This is a useless thing!" But the fool is the sayer, who cannot see the roots beneath, reaching down, drawing gently from the earth, and returning vital nutrition to the earth, which provides a means of sustenance to the purple tree blooming brightly beside. Or it may not. It may offer nothing now, and ever. But each thing in its own place, for its own reason, not for us to chide.

Picture taken from http://www.michigan.gov/images/MDA_RadishSeedSprout_03_61026_7.jpg