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Chinese Bamboo Tree Fable


You take a little seed, plant it, water it, and fertilize it for a whole year, and nothing happens.

The second year you water and fertilize it, and nothing happens.

The third year you water it and fertilize it, and nothing happens. How discouraging this becomes!

The fourth year you water it and fertilize it, and nothing happens. This is very frustrating.

The fifth year you continue to water and fertilize the seed and then sometime during the fifth year, the Chinese bamboo tree sprouts and grows ninety feet in six weeks!


Sometimes, our healing journey and growth process can feel like the story above. Nothing happens after all this work! Have heart. Allow time for the process itself. In other words, what may appear to be "not working" or "not healing" is often a deeper need to experience growth, learning lessons of patience or receiving, learning to appreciate the present, learning to respect and care for yourself, and so on. And, at the end of this nurturing period, when all pieces fell into place, you'd either notice the changes you had hoped for, or you'd move to a different state of being such that your desire is no longer the same as when you started.

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