美文赏析 Growing Roots
So he never watered his trees. He’d plant an oak and, instead of watering it every morning, he’d beat it with a rolled-up newspaper. Smack! Slap! Pow! I asked him why he did that, and he said it was to get the tree’s attention.
Dr. Gibbs went to glory a couple of years after I left home. Every now and again, I walked by his house and looked at the trees that I’d watched him plant some twenty-five years ago. They’re granite strong now. Big and robust. Those trees wake up in the morning and beat their chests and drink their coffee black.
I planted a couple of trees a few years back. Carried water to them for a solid summer. Sprayed them. Prayed over them. The whole nine yards. Two years of coddling has resulted in trees that expect to be waited on hand and foot. Whenever a cold wind blows in, they tremble and chatter their branches. Sissy trees.
Funny things about those trees of Dr. Gibbs’. Adversity and deprivation seemed to benefit them in ways comfort and ease never could.
Every night before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. I stand over them and watch their little bodies, the rising and falling of life within. I often pray for them. Mostly I pray that their lives will be easy. But lately I’ve been thinking that it’s time to change my prayer.
美文赏析 | |
- 诗歌 在清晨许个愿
- 诗歌 世界上最遥远的距离 The furthest distance in the world
- 诗歌 一粒沙子 A Grain of Sand
- 诗歌 让我们成为更有爱心的人 The More Loving One
- 诗歌 爱情 Love
- 诗歌 美德 Virtue
- 诗歌 青春的飞逝 The Flight of Youth
- 诗歌 人生礼颂 A Psalm of Life
- 诗歌 生活的忠告 Words to Live by
- 诗歌 雨天 The Rainy Day