Hi Everyone,
Thank you for your encouraging notes. This journal has been a great source of love, friendship, support, encouragement and Hope for our family. As you know from your own lives, some days are just plain hard. But as Corey says, “If I can make it to bedtime, we get to start over tomorrow”.
We receive emails from many carepage followers we have not yet had the privilege to meet. One such note arrived today with a ‘parable-like’ story attached; the author was not identified. It was our new friends hope it would give us a new perspective to help us through our current challenge.
~ Seasons of Life ~
There was a man who had 4 sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away.
The 1st son went in the winter
The 2nd in the spring
The 3rd in the summer and the youngest son in the fall
When they had all gone and returned, he called them together to describe what they had seen.
The 1st son said that the tree was ugly, bent and twisted.
The 2nd son said it was covered with green buds full of promise
The 3rd son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen.
The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit full of life and fulfillment.
The man then explained to his sons that they were all right because they had seen only one season in the tree’s life.
He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season. That the essence of who they are, and the pleasure, joy and love that comes from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.
If you give up when it’s winter you will miss the promise of your spring, the beauty of your summer and the fulfillment of your fall.
Don’t let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest. Don’t judge life by one difficult season. Persevere through the difficult patches and better times are sure to come in time.
Success keeps you growing but only GOD keeps you going.
Corey,
Your recovery correlates to this parable. We’ve already made it through the winter and we are beginning to see the green buds of promise. Waiting for the seasons to change when it seems that time has stalled is very frustrating but we also know that life and progress never truly stands still.
It’s been a long, brutal winter but everyday a new bud is getting ready to blossom. As you continue to grow and begin to bloom, you will show everyone watching that ‘difficult’ is a far cry from ‘impossible’! xoxo