Seasons of Life

Happened to read an article and wanted to share it here:


There was a man who had four sons.
He wanted his sons to learn not to Judge Things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away.
The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall. When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen the first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted. The second son said no it was covered with green buds and full of promise. The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen. The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe anddrooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.
The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree’s life. He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.
If you give up when it’s winter, you will miss the promise of your spring, the  beauty of your summer, fulfillment of your Autumn Don’t let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest. Don’t judge life by one difficult season. Persevere through the difficult patches and better times are sure to come sometime.
Aspire to Inspire Before You Expire Live Simply, Love Generously. Care Deeply. Speak Kindly.
The Rest Will Fall Into Place Happiness keeps You Sweet, Trials keep You StrongSorrows keep You Human.


Failures keep You Humble Success keeps You Glowing, But Your Dreams Keep You Going

Kusudama flowers made from old bus schedule/route map

And this small gift goes to a special, Eco- conscious person whom I wanted to give something made on the concept of Recycling. 


I had a bus route map booklet which I saved from California as a remembrance. At a later point, I thought its of no use and wanted to re-use it. Also a parallel thought was to gift a person whom I admire with something precious which can show my admiration for her. She is an eco-conscious person and was the CSR core member in our team. 


Though Kusudama flowers are easy to make, it really took a great amount of time to prepare this bouquet since the size of the flower I chose to make is very small and it requires preparation of 5 petals separately to make a single flower and it needed 15+ flowers. The project took many more days than I initially estimated. 
Finally, the day had come when I gifted it to her and I was delighted to know that she liked it very much and was overjoyed. All my efforts were paid off. She placed it at her office cabin where everyone on the floor happened to notice that and liked it. Though I cant witness all this by myself, I felt glad that they liked it.


Tutorial for these Kusudama flowers is available at:
http://foldingtrees.com/2008/11/kusudama-tutorial-part-1/