The Tree that didn`t know who he
was
Adaptation
of a Ancient Oriental Story
Once
upon a time there was a beautiful garden where all of kind of marvelous trees
grew. Some gave enormous oranges, filled with delicious juice; other
trees gave pears, so sweet that just by looking at them seems like sugary
candies. There were other trees filled with golden peaches, that were a
delicacy to those who tasted them.
It was
an exceptional garden and the fruits were quite happy. They were not only
healthy, robust and beautiful trees, but besides that, they produced the best
fruits that anybody could imagine.
Only
one of those trees felt unfortunate because even though its branches were big
and very green, it was not bearing fruit. The tree was always complaining
of its bad luck.
- My friends, all of you are heavy with wonderful fruits, but I am not.
It is not fair and I do not know what to do.
The
tree was very depressed and every day repeated the same thing like a song.
The other trees appreciated him very much and tried for the tree to
recover happiness by saying encouraging words. For example, the Apple tree,
used to say that the important thing was to concentrate in the problem.
- Let´s see, my friend, if you do not concentrate, you will never
accomplish it. Relax your mind and try to bear apples! It worked
for me!
But the
tree, tried so hard to be in silence and imagine that green apples were growing
from his branches, but with no results.
Another
tree that used to encourage it, was the Mandarin tree, who insisted for it to
try to bear mandarins.
- Perhaps it would be easier for you to bear mandarins. !Look, how
many I have! They are smaller that the apples and weigh less...!
Come on, make an effort and see if you can make it!
Nothing
happened; the tree was unable and felt very sad for been different and less
productive.
One
morning the owl heard him aguishly crying and perched on the tree. The
owl observed that the tree's tears were heavy as the rain, thought that
something really serious had happened. With respect, the owl spoke:
- Sorry
for bothering you ... Look, I do not know much about the problem that you
trees have, but here I am in case you want to share what has happened. I
am a very observative animal and maybe I can be of help.
The
tree sighed and shared with the bird his pain.
- Thanks
for caring about me, my friend. As you can see, in this garden there are
hundreds of trees, all of them beautiful and filled with incredible fruits, but
not me ¿Can't you see? All of my friends insist that I should try
and bear apples, pears and mandarin, but I can not. ¡I feel
frustrated and upset with myself, for not being able to bear not even an olive!
The
owl, whom was a very wise bird, understood the reason of his pain and said
firmly:
- Would
you like to hear my sincere opinion? The problem is that you do no know yourself!
You spend the day doing what others tell you to do and you do not hear your
inner voice.
The
tree put a strange face.
- My
inner voice? What do you mean?
- Yes,
your inner voice! You have it, we all do, but we need to learn to hear
it. She will tell you who you are and what is your function in this
planet. I hope you meditate about this because the answer is in it.
The owl
blinked an eye and with out saying a word flew and was lost in the distance.
The
tree in deep meditation decided to follow the wise advice the owl gave
him. Deeply sighed several times in order to free himself of the negative
thoughts and tried to concentrate in his inner voice. When finally he
disconnected his mind from the surrounding, finally he heard a still voice
inside of him that whispered:
- We
all are what we are. How can you pretend to bear pears if you are not a
pear tree? Neither you can bear apples for you are not an apple
tree. You are an oak tree and as an oak tree you are here to accomplish a
different but very important mission: to welcome the birds in your strong
branches and give shade to living creatures on the heated days. Ahh, and
that is not all! Your beauty contributes to bring happiness to
the eye and you are one of the species most admired by scientist and botanist.
Don't you think that's enough?
In that
moment and after many months had passed, the sad tree was happy. Emotion
ran through his trunk because he finally understood who he was and how precious
and essential was the mission he had to accomplish as part of nature.
Never
again did he felt worst than the other trees and got to be very happy the rest
of his life.
Moral: We
all have different capacities that distinguishes us. Try to
know yourself and feel proud of who you are instead of trying to be or what
others want you to be.
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