FRUIT ARIVES IN ITS OWN SEASON

In Life, nothing happens without a reason…

and, nothing happens but in its own season!

Some twenty-five years ago, I would see this gentleman taking his little son out, every morning. Sometimes, I would see him playing with the little one in the garden. As the years rolled by, the son became a man, got married, and bore his own little son. I now see the gentleman – the grandfather – taking out the little grandson everyday… And, yes, I see him playing with the grandson in the same garden… in the same manner… and for the same reason!

This morning, the gentleman was here to invite me for his grandson’s birthday. Yes, he had brought along the little one. The moment I saw them, I mentioned to the gentleman how delighted I used to feel every time he would take his little son out, years ago… and, how I feel the same now when I see him with his little grandson…

The man pointed to the trees outside and said, “Do you know that these trees were planted here some thirty-five years ago?” He continued, “When they were just saplings, we had to take immense care – water them, manure them, protect them... and, as they grew bigger and stronger, we did not even have to bother about them… They started bearing fruits as their seasons came… Just like we humans,” he ran his hand over the little-one’s soft hair.

How similar, and how beautiful are the ways of the Nature!

But, often, our mind fails to see this great beauty, this truth.

The mind, often, has no patience to wait… It has no faith in the future… It doesn’t want us to invest in another soul… It wants fast results, and it believes only in what it is able to see and touch…

The Nature works slowly, steadily and beautifully… It works on dependable laws, principles… Not without them. Never.

The Nature wants us to be slow, steady and trusting… It wants us to invest in others… trust them, nurse them, care for them… love them… and, it does hold all of us the same promise: The fruits will come when the season comes!

So, this morning, what this gentleman was trying to tell me when he pointed to the trees outside was this: Because someone invested in these trees when they were just babies – by bestowing faith in them, nursing and caring for them… and, by always believing that they would grow up and bear fruits in their own time – yes, because ‘someone’ had waited, trusted and cared, that ‘we’ have been able to witness, today, these robust trees with their lovely fruits.

I remembered one of Kabir’s Dohas (Couplets):

Dheere Dheere Re Mana, Dheere Sub Kutch Hoye
Mali Seenche So Ghara, Ritu Aaye Phal Hoye

[Slowly slowly O mind, everything in own pace happens

The gardener may water with a hundred buckets, fruit arrives only in its season]

Kabir’s lines can give us our own personal meaning… Today, this is the meaning I find from his famous couplet…

In Life, nothing happens without a reason…

And, nothing happens but in its own season!

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Gloria Pinto