DON'T CUT THE TREES WHEN YOU DON'T SEE THE LEAVES
Pic.: Dilip V
Our faith is tested when we are driven to the
wall. So, whenever someone tells me “Have faith in yourself,” what I really
hear is: “Be a fighter.”
When times are
tough, what sees us through is only this fighting spirit in our gut, the faith
in ourselves.
In fact, none of
us know what we are capable of… how much we take bear, unless we are challenged
by our hard times… The fighter in us comes out only when our back is to the
wall.
Yes, no one, in
his senses, would ask for tough times… Tough times come and challenge us!
A familiar experience
inside me, when the road ahead looks like a dead-end, is to give up the fight.
It is just like looking at the leafless tree and concluding, “It is all over
for the tree… Let me cut it.” I go through this kind of experience so often… I,
too, struck with gloom, contemplate on cutting the leafless tree…
Yes, sometimes, I
do…
But, most of the times,
I don’t. I hang on with hope… Not with
blind hope but with an active effort to overcome my problems, searching for
ways out, knocking the unknown doors, meeting the unknown people, working more,
praying more, toiling more… and, yes, hoping that the season will change, the leaves
will return… the tree will bear fruits, all over again…
Every time, I am
faced with a challenge, I am, also, faced with the same options: to fight or to
flight… To cut the tree with panic and fear or to stay on with courage, patience
and perseverance…
Mercifully, I choose
to fight more often than choose to flight… More often, I choose to wait, hold on… and let the leaves
and fruits return to the tree…
That’s all there is to Life and its tough times… Only two options: to fight or to flight… To wait
for the season to change or to cut the leafless tree.
GERALD D’CUNHA
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