The nature can teach us something about life.
Flora and fauna can reveal something about the meaning of our life. Do you know
about bamboo tree?
1. The Story of Bamboo
Three
One day, a farmer went to his farm and he
wanted to plant some Chinese bamboo trees and some mango trees. He decided to
plant those bamboo trees on the one side of his farm and mango trees on the
other side. He prepared the holes and put some good manure for those seeds;
planted them and water them.
Day by day, he took care of them by watering
them and putting some fertilizers needed. He was very faithful doing this job. He
took care of them day by day and week by week. After some weeks when he visited
the area of mango tree, he was very happy to see that the mango tree had
sprouted; there was a small appearance on ground. He knew that mango trees were
alive but when he came to the side of the bamboo trees, he found nothing.
However, he continued taking care of them. After a year his mango trees were
growing nice and healthy because of his regular cares.
Two years came to pass and he still continued doing
his regular work, i.e., taking care of mango trees and bamboo trees. Sometimes
he felt to give up on bamboo trees because of finding no result. “Shall I continue to water and take care of
the bamboo trees?” he was thinking, “already more than two years I have been
taking care of bamboo trees but even a sprout of it was not there.”
On the end of third year, he realized that the
flowers had come out from mango trees. He was very happy because he knew that
soon he would enjoy the fruits of mango trees. Mango trees finally produced the
sweet and nice fruits on the fourth year. However, he did not see any sign of
life on the bamboo trees. He was wondering whether the bamboo trees had died already
or not. He felt that he had failed to have a bamboo tree in his farm. This situation
discouraged him. In spite of this
situation, he decided to continue taking care of the bamboo trees. He said, “I
have chosen good seed, prepared the lands and put fertilizers on it, planted
them with love, and taken care of them so there is no reason to give up on them”.
One morning on the beginning of the fifth year,
while walking and checking his farm and thinking of his mango trees that had
given him fruits and how sad he was on his bamboo trees, he moved
unintentionally to the side where he planted bamboo trees and clearing some
weeds on that side, he was so surprise to find an opening on the ground; it was
small appear of bamboo tree. “They are alive”, he shouted happily. He was
checking each hole where he planted the bamboo tree; they were all coming out
nicely. They really broke open the ground to pass through it. He thought gratefully,
“wow. It is wonderful; it is miracle, and it is hope”.
He continued doing his work taking care of his
plants. He was happy that finally he could see his mango trees and bamboo
trees. However, he was amazed to find out that only in six weeks there was a
remarkable growth of his bamboo trees. Now he could see that his bamboo trees
were growing already 6 feet and now was higher than mango trees.
The farmer was happily having mango trees and
bamboo trees in his farm. Sometimes he made use of mango trees branches and
bamboo trees stick in his farming life. He built a small hut by some branches
of mango trees and he made some house furniture using bamboo.
One day, a disaster came to the farmer’s region.
Strong hurricane wind came and destroyed many houses and lives on that area. The
farmer’s farm and house also were among them. This disaster and calamity
brought a sense of hopeless on him. He felt nothing and losing hope in his
life. But one morning after recovering from the disaster, he went to see his
farm. He found all were destroyed; his mango trees were uprooted and fallen
scattering around the farm. One miracle was that he found his bamboo trees were
still standing on the ground. His bamboo trees brought him hope to restart his
life. He learned that during the five years of growth, the bamboo trees actually
grow deeper and deeper in the ground. He could not see the growth because
their roots were buried in the ground. Bamboo trees survived in the time of
disaster of hurricane because their strong roots were buried deeper in the
ground.
2. The Moral of the
Story
The faithfulness of the farmer: the farmer could have given up on the bamboo trees. He could have stopped to take care of
bamboo trees after seeing years of not making a good result. However, he did not
do so. He continued and persevered to take care of bamboo trees; he did not
quit to take care of bamboo trees. This kind of character is what we need in this life. We should
have hope and never give up even at the moment of which we cannot see the
result. We are living in the time of seeing result as the most important of
life. People who produce nothing are seen as failures. However, we need people
like the farmer who can bring hope for the society and give another chance for
people. And we have encountered such people in our life who by their own ways
bring hope to others. They are always faithful to their duty/work in order to
bring others to reach their self actualization.
Bamboo tree’ following the essence of its
nature: Bamboo tree was not complaining of not growing as fast as mango tree. Bamboo
tree knows its condition and its ways of growing. It needs almost five years to
appear on the ground surface and it needs only six weeks to grow higher than
mango tree. In this life, everything created has a purpose. Things are created
for a very specific purpose. Therefore, human beings are molded by cultures, knowledge,
conditions, and circumstances. We have our ways of growth: some have a growth
faster in emotional, some spiritual, some physical, and so on; some are good at
maths, some at sport, some at social study, and so on. We cannot put all in the same frame and make
them think and act as we want them to be. Bamboo tree, which has its own way of
growing, differ from what that of mango tree.
Thus, in this world that is full of diversity of languages, ethnics,
cultures, religions, and believes, we must come to recognize who we are and the
goal of our being here and now. There are some slogans such as “unity in diversity”
and “one heart in many faces”. However,
these show that we must respect each person as he/she is and try to help them
to grow in their uniqueness for the good of all.
Preparing time for future disaster: bamboo tree
was not growing as we expect it to be because it prepared itself: preparing to
grow deeper in order to grow up. The five years of deeper growth showed us that
there is time in life, especially our early life to put a good foundation for
the future. It may take long time but it prepares our life not only for good
life, which produces fruits, but also for time of disaster. Bamboo tree could
stay up during the hurricane because it had deep roots. Therefore, when we want
to stay erect during the time of disaster in our life, we need time to put our
roots deeper. We need to be prepared in our faith, hope, and love; we need to
be prepared in our knowledge and our physical strength. We need to be equipped to face any disaster in
the future.
Finally, the story of bamboo tree is the story
of our life: life is about process of becoming what we are supposed to be. We must
open ourselves for the better and for the worst in life. Life is dynamic, not
static. Therefore, we could become like a bamboo tree and at the same time like a mango
tree or a farmer. It is about choice we make: the choice to be or to do; the
choice to live or to die; the decision to continue our journey or to give up. We will encounter some people who act like the
farmer who refused to give up but also we will find some people who give up life. We will find some
people like mango tree that grew fast and produced the fruits but could not manage
to face hurricane of life. But also we will know people who can act like bamboo
tree. They are very slow to grow according to our senses but actually they find
their purpose on the course of time and stay strong in the time of disaster. What
I hope is that we should not give up in life; we have our ways of actualizing
our potentiality.
😅
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