The Lentil Seed (Posted by Priya Deelchand)

 My boyhood dream was to acquire a big motorcycle
  and become a Knight of the open highway.

    But getting a license to drive a bike was a
  completely different story! I had to learn the
  rules of the road by heart and practice driving
  so I could pass safely between strategically placed
  pylons without touching them. I had to learn to
  maneuver through crowded city streets, never
  forgetting to signal my intentions to other
  drivers...

    It was a long and arduous process. But my
  driving instructor was philosophical about it.

    I remember one particularly difficult lesson.
  I had taken a fall and simply could not steer
  the bike around a curve between the obstacles.
  I got upset and started to doubt I could ever
  succeed. "It's no good, I'll never be pass the
  test!" I cried.

    "Calm down," my instructor said. "You may not
  know it, but you're making good progress every day."

    I'd been a teacher myself, so I knew about
  the platitudes teachers use to encourage their
  students. Which is why I didn't believe a word
  he said.

    "It'll take more than a cliché to convince me
  of that," I said.

    "Tonight when you go home," he replied, "put a
  lentil seed in some moist cotton. Then, every day,
  watch it grow for half an hour. Come back and tell
  me what you see."

    Naturally I didn't see anything. I played the
  game for three days, then gave up.

    But finally, two months after I started and with
  much effort and concentration, I obtained my license
  to drive a bike.

    On the day I took my exam my lentil seed sprouted.
  A tiny green shoot had pierced through the cotton.
  In a flash I understood the meaning of what my
  instructor had said.

    It's impossible to make a seed grow. It has to stay
  underground until the moment it is ready to break
  through into the open air. Even if the seed were
  in a hurry to grow, it could not have speeded up
  the process. Sometimes it takes time and quiet for
  things to sprout in us, and come to fruition.

    Although undetectable, new seeds are always present,
  making slow but steady progress inside us, preparing
  to burst forth and bloom at the right time.
  
    "Trees teach us patience - they do not break at the
  first sign of a storm."
  Carl Beaupré

  Author Unknown
Posted by Priya Deelchand
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