A man journeyed from his village to a city during the sunny season. He went through a plain which had deciduous trees during a season when they had shed their leaves. So when the sun got very hot, he decided to seek shade to shelter himself from the scorching sun. He searched for a long time but could not find any tree that offered him shade. He was very furious and journeyed to the city very bitter about his predicament. When he got to the city, he started spreading news about deciduous tress and how they were the worst trees to plant. He advocated for the tress to be cut and replaced by other ones that were leafy. He never took time to understand the cycle of the deciduous trees.
Have you ever been through a bad season and somebody requested your help but you did not help? The man who went seeking shade under the deciduous trees and never found any, made a theory out of the whole scenario. Sometimes, a friend may come for financial help when you are broke and if you fail to assist them, they then go spreading word about how poor you are. Other times, your friend needs you to be there for them when they are going through difficult circumstances, but your schedules do not allow you to do so and they go ahead preaching how disloyal you are. There are times when you get disappointed by something or somebody and you develop a very negative attitude towards them. Perhaps, there are places you visit and you fall in love with the place because of how well you were treated? There are people you will meet and you develop a very positive picture about them without knowing them much. That is how sometimes life makes us believe things but the point is, there is more under the skin than what you see. With time, I have come to understand that the saying ‘Never judge book by its cover’ is not a cliché but rather, a deep life principle.
Life lesson: Never make a philosophy out of a season. Do not behave like the man who judged the deciduous trees by a single season. Those who met you during the season when you had shed “leaves” should never call you poor and those who meet you during your evergreen season should not think that you know no trouble. Those who disappointed you should never be classified as enemies and those who took away your breath away should never be perceived as angles. Always take time to understand and know people and stuff; people have a tendency of surprising you. There those you judge harshly as evil but they are angles in deception; there are those you write off quickly and they are your destiny connectors. There are places you fall in love with which you should be running away from, but, how they are presented to you steals your heart. Most of the times ‘bombs’ come packaged in briefcases while gold comes covered with dross.
Hence, take time to know what is worth keeping and what is worth discarding. It is sad that most of the times what we dream of comes packed as pieces but we discard them instead of putting them together. As the year sets, know that many things in life do not come with manuals so take time to know them.
