Thursday, July 12, 2007

Life Lessons

There was an Indian Chief who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at the same pear tree that was a great distance away.

The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall.

When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen.

The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted.
The second son said no, it was covered with green buds and full of promise.
The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen.
The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.

The Chief then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree's life.

He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons have passed and can be considered as one life.

6 comments:

Frasier said...

Was scrolling thro the blogs when I came upon yours.Good to see people who support the troops and our president!

Frasier said...

Hi there,
Its me again and I just realised that you are a part of the Indiana patriot guard.My husband just signed on for the Georgia chapter and I had done a post in the past on the Patriot guards.
http://frasypoo.blogspot.com/2007/05/patriot-guard.html
Its a great organisation.

Kat said...

Awesome post... I'm so gonna share that.

Frasypoo -- hey there! I'm a Georgia PGR member, too!!! I'm gonna go visit yer blog like...NOW! :)

http://crazynightinga.blogspot.com

Judy said...

Very true lesson. We could learn a lot from the Native Americans (at least from the Traditionalists). I especially like the Indian belief in "seven generations" - that each decision we make should be condsidered in the light of how it will effect the next seven generations.

Good post, DNR.

DirkStar said...

Hi how are ya? Hi how are ya? Hi how are ya...

Old Indian greeting chant.

Here is the goodbye version.

See ya later. See ya later.

Ugh, me make heap big funny.

Must go now...

Squall calling, loudly.

Anonymous said...

Great post DNR...and soooo true!