A Retell Of “The Chinese Bamboo Tree”
I would like to start with a famous quote:
Quote:
“Every champion was once a contender who refused to give up.” — Rocky Balboa
These words are so powerful — and meaningful. They are from the movie “Rocky”. Rocky Balboa is the movie character played by actor Sylvester Stallone.
Now — back to my retelling of the story of The Chinese Bamboo Tree:
One day, a boy was given two seeds to grow by his father:
- The seed of the Empress tree
- The seed of the Chinese Bamboo tree
The father said to the son:
“Grow these two seeds on soil and let me know.”
“The Empress tree is one of the fastest growing trees in the world. It can grow up to 20 feet tall within its first year and it reaches maturity within 10 years.”
“On the other hand, the Chinese Bamboo tree can finally grow up to a height of 90 feet tall.”
The story continues.
A year passed by, and when the end of the first year arrived, the boy only saw the Empress tree grown to a height of 20 feet tall. While he watered both the seeds, nothing happened to the seed of the Chinese Bamboo Tree.
The boy was curious as to why only one seed grew and the other didn’t. And so, he bought fertilizers for the Chinese Bamboo tree, hoping that fertilizing it would expedite its growth.
When the end of the second year arrived, the Chinese Bamboo tree still didn’t grow at all. But the boy continued to water and fertilize it.
Then came the third year …. and the fourth year — and the Chinese Bamboo tree still didn’t grow. Meanwhile, the Empress tree had already reached 80 feet tall.
You see — for four years, the Chinese Bamboo tree would not grow at all. It stayed in the soil during all these four years, faithfully taking in nutrients from the soil and water. But it just won’t even grow an inch.
But when the fifth year arrived, things began to make an about-turn.
Within one short month into its fifth year, it had shot up to a height of 90 feet tall — growing up to 3 feet every single day — and overtaking the height of the Empress tree.
For four long years, it did not manifest its head at all. However, behind the scenes, it was actually growing its roots as strongly as it could. It was building its own solid foundation consistently over the past four years.
This analogy of how the Chinese Bamboo tree grows can be applied to our life.
While a person may not be visibly showing signs of progress, it does not necessarily entail that he or she is not working hard. Many times, the fruits of our labor will take a long time to materialize and are only evident after a long period of hard work.
The stems of the Chinese Bamboo tree are actually hollow. Despite this characteristic, it has one of the strongest stems in the world.
During the four years of seemingly zero growth, the Chinese Bamboo tree is actually growing its root network and preparing itself to provide the maximum strength while maintaining flexibility and durability.
And that’s how our life is to be lived — we have to persevere for an extended period of time so as to achieve strength and finally see our success.
And now — back to the quote “Every champion was once a contender who refused to give up.”
The Empress tree was seemingly the “champion” — growing 20 feet tall during its first year compared to the Chinese Bamboo tree’s four years of zero growth.
But the contender (the Chinese Bamboo tree) refused to give up in the race and finally went on to become the champion growing to a height of 90 feet tall!
Cheers everyone!
The joy of writing is such that I can share and disseminate what I know. I am also learning what I don’t know. And I realized that there is so much that I still don’t know and I want to know.
