You may feel like this tree: without leaves, flowers or fruit. Someone who does not know that this is a natural phenomenon, typical of the coldest parts of the temperate regions of the planet, might look at it and imagine it dead forever…
Just as the winters of life pass, so that the springs of existence inevitably arrive, you, despite currently experiencing this cyclical winter of the human condition, will once again display the greenery (leaves) of motivation, see the beauty and charm of opportunities in all areas of your action in the world (flowers), and strive for achievements for your own good and for the good of your fellow human beings (fruits).
However, be alert to collaborate with the process, because you are a human being, not a plant. Therefore, the above metaphor helps in initial reflection, but it fails to encompass the full complexity of human evolutionary challenges. From a more realistic perspective, the individual must mobilize to begin discovering these leaves, flowers and fruits within themselves, to offer them to the world, however meager and pale, in the first stages of renewing one’s own path. It is with initiative, creativity and continuous effort, taking full responsibility for yourself, that you will foster existential rebirths… doing your best, within the context of each situation in which you find yourself.
Remember Jesus cursing the fig tree for being without figs, outside the fig-bearing season… Christ was delivering a dramatic apology for human freedom to be and act, independent of external factors. Act, with determination, discipline and persistence, for the good and improvement of the less fortunate existential situation in which you find yourself, starting right now, without waiting for special seasons of disposition, ideal emotional or financial circumstances, opportunities or miraculous resources that appear out of nowhere, without work or merit.
As the composer Geraldo Vandré would say, in a hymn of hope for a generation: “Come, let’s go, for waiting is not knowing… Those who know make the time, they do not wait for it to happen!”
Benjamin Teixeira de Aguiar
and Spiritual Friends
New Fairfield, Connecticut, USA
January 11, 2017