LET A TREE GROW IN YOUR HEART

‘KEEP A GREEN TREE IN YOUR HEART AND PERHAPS THE SINGING BIRD WILL COME.’ – LOIS LOWRY

You surely sometime must have seen a child playing in a garden suddenly run after a sparrow nibbling on some grain. If you have ever observed such a beautiful spectacle, and if you are the kind of a person who has some space in your heart for the beauty of innocence, I’m sure you must have found it more interesting than any other captivating sight.

Such harmless and naive scenes of life, sadly stop attracting our attention as the burden of books strapped on our little shoulders gets heavier. The shoulders get compelled to bend due to deadlines putting a stop to all sensitivity of simple joys, allowing cheerful expressions only during holidays or excursions.

The garden continues to wait longingly for that little girl to come back and sit to relax on one of its benches. The little bird too keeps searching for its playmate. It takes years of waiting and then after several stages of development, the girl who is now an old woman can be seen relaxing on a bench which seems to have been waiting long for her company. She can be seen looking intently at the hopping and chirping bird. She is unable to run after it, her legs hurt. Her mind though begins a conversation: “I wish you hadn’t got entangled in the web of artificial existence. I wish you had cut ties from time to time from the race of life and come here to watch the majestic show of plainness. I wish that you had allowed the green tree to keep growing in your heart so that the birds could have come and sat on it, singing soothing songs to heal you regularly. How simple it could have all been! How complicated it turned out!”

I suppose it’s never too late to plant a seed and let a tree grow in our hearts. Life is innocent; it simply waits for us to enjoy every moment of it. Could it be 

possible that we are unable to enjoy it because we are too busy complicating it? That would be seriously funny!

pic. courtesy: Google