The mother tree and the barren land

Once, in the middle of a barren land, there grew a tree surrounded by prickly cactuses and every spring the tree would say to her seedlings,

“It’s time now, my young seedlings to fall onto the fertile Earth so that you can grow up into a big, strong tree just like your Mama”.

And all the seedlings would chatter and laugh excitedly as they let go of their mother’s branches and fell to earth because they all wanted to become a tree.

But the Cactuses would say to the tree,

“Mother Tree, why do you bother scattering seeds and why do you tell lies to your children? This is a barren land. None of your seeds is ever going to grow into a tree, not on this land. Only cactuses can grow here”.

“Shhh”, the tree would say, not wanting the seeds to hear, “Children need hope. If they don’t have hope, they don’t have anything”.

But then one spring while the tree was scattering its seeds, a big wind blew through the land and it blew one of the seeds so far that it carried it outside of where the land was barren and then, instead of simply withering and dying the way all its brothers and sisters had, the seed began to take root and to flower and out of that seed there grew a little sapling.

“Look Mama, look”, the sapling called to its mother, waving with its single green leaf, “I’m growing. I’m becoming a tree just like you”.

Little white blossoms fell from the mother tree as she looked at her child; tears of joy.

Of course, the cactuses weren’t happy, they grumbled to themselves, but there was nothing they could do.

So you see children, even when it appears that things are hopeless you must never give up trying because it is only through trying that hope finally comes.