I am grateful for a 5000 year old scripture for its wisdom I used today.
We are learning about the Bhagavad Gita as we are immersing ourselves in India and Hinduism. The quote above helped me through a moment when my words just kept getting in the way. Even though I really wanted to help, the words kept making things worse. I didn’t know what to do and then I remembered the quote above. This was the quote that the oldest two children copied in their own Book of Hours today.
I said the quote silently in my heart and I stopped talking.
When I stopped talking, my heart told me to simply say this:
Imagine you are an apple tree. Your sister is an orange tree. Your other sister is a pear tree. Your other sister is a peach tree. Your brother is a plum tree.
(At which point, from across the room, little brother yelled, “I want to be a…what’s that tree with the coconuts again? Oh yeah palm tree!!!).
I continued.
You are an apple tree. If you try to be an orange tree, what will happen? You won’t see the beauty of your own blossoms. You won’t see the beauty of your own fruit. You won’t even be a good orange tree.
As different trees, you all will blossom at different times. You are the apple tree. When the apple tree grows into itself, it feels at home in itself. If you always want to grow a different type of fruit or forget who you are, you fight against nature herself.
Grow into YOU. That is all you have to worry about.
And then I was silent and waited with love and then she smiled.
***
42 days of gratitude…giving thanks to it ALL every day.
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