The difference

Some days ago, we declared war – on hundreds of acorn seedlings. I love to work in the garden so I was glad to be able to help a little by plucking them out. Unfortunately, I’m not able to do that a lot anymore. That’s what happens when your legs don’t carry you for long, the dysfunctional balance of your body makes it necessary to hold yourself onto something almost constantly and furthermore you are not able to pull yourself up from the floor or a squat.

But some of those seedlings were positioned right behind a little wall, that made it possible for me to take my wheelchair right in front, stand up for a little while or even pluck them while sitting in the wheelchair.

Actually, a pretty annoying task and in my head, I’m working to find a method to be able to collect the seeds in fall before they even are able to take roots in our garden.
Nevertheless, I admire the technique acorn trees use. Hundreds of seeds are spread all over the region. Little “wings” in the seeds make them able to fly miles and miles around and so the tree is multiplied. It is obvious: Not all of the seeds will one day become a huge tree. But some begin to sprout and if they are not plucked out will soon have their first leaves and branches. That’s what happened in our garden. When we moved into this house, the tree hadn’t been there. Today – after 17 years – it’s one of the tallest in our garden.

I believe this technique is worth copying. If we spread a lot of love and kindness, we sometimes get the impression that it’s not worth it because our seeds get plucked out. The kind look gets no response, the helping hand is taken for granted, the loving deed is overlooked or rejected.
But not all of this is in vain. Some of the love and kindness we spread hits home, cultivates roots and grows into a large tree inside the other who in turn can now spread his seeds into the land. That’s why it’s worth not giving up. Somewhere our love and kindness will make THE difference and lead to something great.