---

You've probably heard the Parable of the Pear tree or in some version, the Parable of hope.

It is the story of a man who had four sons whom he wanted to teach not to judge things too quickly.

He sent each of them on a mission to go and look at a pear tree at the field. The first son went when it was winter, the second during spring, the third in summer and the youngest when autumn came.

When they had all  gone back home, the father called them together to describe to him what each witnessed.

The first son said  "I see nothing of promise about the tree. It appears old, and gnarled and has no blooms on it at all. I doubt it will survive the winter."

The second son said "The tree is very beautiful, with white blooms, but it seems purely ornamental, it has no fruit, nor any sign of ever bearing any. I doubt it will be of much practical use to us."

The third son disagreed and said "The tree seems to be growing and doing well, and it is full of leaves, and I could see some fruit, so I picked one and tasted it, but it was bitter, not fit for human consumption. I doubt it will prove of much use to us."

The father called his four sons back together, and said, "You see each of you have observed well the condition of a the tree at a particular season of the year, but your judgment of the tree was only partial, and made too quickly based on what you saw on only the one occasion. See to it that you never judge human beings this way. Never evaluate them too quickly or on the basis of one encounter, for it is unfair and unwise. Indeed all living things should only be evaluated over the course of time and after repeated careful inspection, for who knows but the ugliest and most unproductive of living things might some day turn into the most beautiful and fruitful."


Just the same, we can look at the left and see bare branches of trees but if we look beyond we see the beauty of the blue sky. We can see on the right that the sky is gray yet we fail to notice the beauty of a blue lake. It is our attitude towards thing that makes our day bad or good. :)

Enjoy the rest of the week...

--

The weather let up a bit, despite the leafless trees I feel calm when I look at this scene. My heart still aches for the tragedy in Japan...as of the moment I am still waiting to hear from a friend who hasn't been online for 2 days now following the earthquake. 

Nippon Ya HandelsgesmbH
Faulmanngasse 5
1040 Vienna
01 5861084
----