LightBears

Hello again my dear LightBears and would-be LightBears! Today I want to share with you a story that has long captivated my interest and given hope to my heart in darker times.

There is a saying that it is a wise man who plants a tree under which he realizes he will not be alive enjoy its shade.  I’m not sure if it comes from Persia perhaps, but regardless of where it comes from, it says a lot.

It speaks, in my opinion, to the HOPE that people carry inside their hearts for the future, despite whatever might be going on in the present. It speaks of people’s desire to make the world a better place, whether they’re there to enjoy it themselves personally or not.

I think this is fabulous and a beautiful way to live, and a beautiful outlook to have. 

About 70 years ago a story was published by Jean Giono under the title “The Man who Planted Trees.” (I heard it on an audio tape about 40 years ago, that’s how old it was, before we ever had CDs or Audible!)

It told the story of a man who, after World War II had ravaged the landscape in France, made it his personal life choice to gather buckets of acorns everyday, soak them overnight, examining them carefully for rot, and carving a small x to enable the acorn to sprout more easily. 

At the time, the land where this man lived had been ravaged by the war, and erosion had taken away all the good topsoil and nothing really grew in what was left. But every day he would walk out a little farther each time, until he was gone for days on end really, planting the soaked, pre-treated acorns on the land. He was already an older person at the time he began his work, but he didn’t let that stop him. He went on planting acorns. As time passed, his life came to an end, but his work bore such beautiful fruit!

The land that had been parched and lifeless now had green growing things throughout, because what had happened was the roots of the trees that came from his acorns held the soil in place and enabled the earth to renew and replenish its vigor. And because of the growth of edible lush vegetation, the wildlife also returned to the land!!!

Isn’t it amazing to consider the impact of one individual on the earth?!

If you are a follower of my blog, no doubt by now you have figured out that hope is a BIG focal point for me.  It is hope that gets me up every morning: hope for a day not yet lived, a page not yet colored in, and experiences not yet lived. Hope is what keeps my personal darkness at bay, and I truly believe that hope is the fertile ground that enables the human spirit to keep on going despite whatever hardships it faces. 

When I go out of my house each day, I metaphorically carry in my pocket seeds — seeds of flowers, seeds of herbs, seeds of new beginnings. And as I go through my day, as I encounter different people or as I encounter myself under different circumstances, I scatter those seeds. I scatter them no matter where I am, whether on fertile ground or on a sidewalk, wherever there is the potential for growth, that is where I scatter my seeds.

I truly believe, given half a chance, our earth can renew itself, the plant life and trees will keep on growing, and because of the miraculous nature of trees in particular, the air will always be purified of the carbon dioxide because of the way they process oxygen and carbon dioxide in their daily and nightly pattern.

On a side note, one equally hopeful, I have just learned that moss actually is 6 times more effective than trees at converting carbon dioxide into clean pure oxygen for our world. Isn’t that amazing!

As I said earlier, my pocket is full of metaphorical seeds. I don’t actually carry seeds in my pocket — although perhaps I should start. What I do instead, though, is I seed the world with my smiles, with my gratitude for another person’s generosity or kindness, with my own kindness, with my own gentleness. I believe that those seeds that I plant will bring a bumper crop of hope and new life into the world of the people that I encounter.

This is the hope that gets me up and out of bed each day, and that helps me sleep at night. 

So my dear readers, thank you for staying with me as I rambled on about seeds and trees and hope. And thank you for continuing to be a LightBear! We need all the LightBears we can find!

Please feel free to share this with anyone that you think might have the slightest interest because, like the man who planted the trees and totally changed the environment around him, I know that hope and belief in positive change are revolutionary in their impact on our world around us.

All it takes is one seed to grow, all it takes is one more person to have hope, all it takes is one more person with hope to get up out of bed in the morning and keep on going. 

I wish you many blessings, and I wish you all hope, true belief that positive change is coming, and the deep inner knowing that all it takes is *ONE* individual to change the world for the better.