Pear Trees & Stress Sandwiches
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 and drooping 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 fall.
The Obvious Moral – Don’t let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest. Take care to not judge life by one difficult season. Persevere through the difficult patches and better times are sure to come some time later.
At times, like yesterday, when I can barely think, never mind think about compelling reasons to keep fighting or being able to summon the waning energy – I end up taking strength from each and every one of you, those of you and you know who you are – who keep writing in with words of support and encouragement, it’s a debt I will never be able to repay.
I’ve been sleeping maybe 2 or 3 hours a night, the wild heart swings are devastating, swinging between low’s in the 30’s beats per minute – then rocketing up to 150 or 160bpm – all within the space of a minute or two. These extremes are BRUTAL on the body, I go from nearly passing out because my blood just isn’t flowing sufficiently throughout my body, to feeling like I just drank 4 espresso and ran a 10K, super jittery and also feeling faint because now I’m in atrial flutter and the blood is again, not circulating properly.
It’s been a massive stress sandwich.
Have a Great Day.