There was a man 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 a 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 man 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 are up.

If you give up when it’s winter, you will miss the promise of your spring,
the beauty of your summer, fulfillment of your fall. Don’t let the pain of
one season destroy the joy of all the rest. Don’t judge life by one
difficult season.

Persevere through the difficult patches and better times are sure to come
some time or later.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 14th, 2004 at 2:12 am and is filed under Overheard. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.