BETWEEN THE TWO EARS, THERE IS A FERTILE LAND

 

“Whatever you are ready for is ready for you.”

Mark Victor Hansen

 

A while ago, a gentleman had come to see me. He had brought along his 17-year-old son. “Sir, I want him to do your summer programme. But, I want you to convince him to join it.”

Well, I knew, from my years of experience, that no one could be convinced against his free will. So, the father had brought his son to the pond, but, would the son drink from the pond?

Yes, only when he is thirsty…

In Life, our thirst to drink is our readiness… Everything happens from there. Until then, as this father put it, the good-ole way, “What comes from one ear goes out from the other.”

I get this feeling throughout the day… Most of what I say, with such intensity and passion, seems to enter in from one ear and go out from the other…

What stays in, goes deep inside… Those are the fertile fields, which Jesus refers to in His ‘Parable of the Sower’…

A farmer went about sowing seeds… Some seeds fell on the pavements… When people walked over them, they died. Some seeds fell on the rocks… When Sun came up, they got burnt and died. Some seeds fell among the bushes… They were not allowed to grow, and they, soon, died. And, then, some seeds fell on the fertile soil… They came up and gave good yield.

Did the farmer discriminate? He sowed the same seeds, you see…

But, where the soil was fertile, there, the seeds grew…

So, this young kid will have to let the seeds grow through his readiness… Until then, there is no hope.

Time has to come, Sir… to feel the depth of the words that you hear… Then, you exclaim, awe-struck: “Oh, they are so deep!”

I remember meeting this respected gentleman from our village (in Mangalore), on the eve of migrating to this city (Bombay)… I was barely 20 and quite shy and apprehensive. But, sensing my zeal and passion, while sending me off, he said, “Boy, you will shine.”

Forty-six years later, those words still ring in my ears. No, they did not come from one ear and go out from the other… I was ready for them, I needed to hear them badly… and, hence, I let them stay inside… go deep, and deeper every day…

Like me, I believe, it’s true for every other young kid…

Just yesterday, I received a call from a middle-aged man, who now holds an important position in one of the global banks. “Sir, can I see you tomorrow after my office hours?” he asked me. “Remember how lost I was while studying in T.Y. B. Com?” he reminded me, “What you said, one day after the class, helped me and has stayed with me, always.”

I did not ask, “What did I say to you, that day?”…

For twenty-six years, the soil in him was letting the seeds grow and give good yield… Just as, after forty-six years, the soil in me still does…

Between the two  ears, there is a fertile land in all of us…

Blessed are those, who let the seeds stay in, and grow and give good yield…

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic’s: 1. Pixel/jonas mohamadi 2. Pixabay

Video: Hannah Nichole/The Greatest Showman