A Story of Trees

It’s nearly 2021—will you be making a new year’s resolution? Is there something that you would like to change about yourself, and how will you plan for a new improved self? I guess we all have dreams and aspirations, and some of them we pursue until we reach them, and others dwindle away into nothing. To be honest, I’m quite glad that some of my dreams evaporated into nothing—especially the ones I had as a teenager—otherwise I’d be in a right mess now!

The trouble with looking ahead and wishing for things that we don’t have, is that sometimes we stop appreciating what we have right now. Maybe, instead of planning to improve things we should sometimes stop and look around at what we already have, and be grateful.

I recently found a story, which sort of links with this idea. I have never noticed it before—add a comment if you recognise where it came from. Or simply sit back with some of your Christmas chocolate, and enjoy a story. . .

Once upon a time the trees got together to choose a king for themselves. They said to the olive tree, “Be our king.”
The olive tree answered, “In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my oil, which is used to honour gods and human beings.”
Then the trees said to the fig tree, “You come and be our king.”
But the fig tree answered, “In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my good sweet fruit.”
So the trees then said to the grapevine, “You come and be our king.”
But the vine answered, “In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my wine, and that makes gods and humans happy.”
So then all the trees said to the thorn bush, “You come and be our king.”
The thorn bush answered, “If you really want to make me your king, then come and take shelter in my shade. If you don’t, fire will blaze out of my thorny branches and burn up the cedars of Lebanon.”