Late this summer I received a wonderful gift – my fig tree finally bore fruit! These were some of the sweetest most delicious figs I’ve ever eaten, and was so pleased to have finally achieved a bountiful harvest!
You see, I planted this tree several years ago. Each year I would see a few green figs sprout from the branches as the tree grew. I would eagerly await their ripening yet when I returned, they were all gone. I suspected that squirrels were snatching the bounty before I could and though disappointed, I realized they must have needed them more than me.
So, this year, as I watched the green figs appear, I imagined a similar fate for them. Now, there were many, many more than ever before so I was hopeful that something might be different, that my patience would pay off – and it sure did!
Why do I share this story? It reminds me of any vision or goal we have for ourselves. We most often want the quick result (of course I was imagining my fig bounty would be received several years before now) and often give up before we ever see it when things don’t move as quickly as we would like them to.
For me and my fig tree, I had enjoyed the beauty of the tree, the shape of the leaves, watching it get bigger each year… and not tying my experience of the tree to the fruit it could bare.
This parallels my own growth as I’ve planted seeds with my business, nurturing them day by day, year by year, expecting that they might yield a positive outcome, though not sure when that would happen, yet not yielding or retreating if they didn’t.
Then, when suddenly a seed I planted sprouts, it is a beautiful and welcome surprise~