The apple tree

A long time ago, there was a huge apple tree. A little boy loved to come and play around it ev­eryday. He climbed to the treetop, ate the apples, and took a nap in its shadow.

He loved the tree and the tree loved to play with him. Time went by and the little boy had grown up and no longer played around the tree every day.

One day, the boy came back to the tree and he looked sad. "Come and play with me", the tree asked the boy. "I am no longer a kid and I don’t play around trees any more," the boy replied. "I want toys.

I need money to buy them." "Sorry, but I do not have money, but you can pick all my apples and sell them. Then, you will have money." The boy was so excited. He grabbed all the apples on the tree and left happily. The boy never came back after he picked the apples and the tree felt sad.

One day, many years later, the boy who had now turned into a man returned. The tree was excited and said, "Come and play with me.” The boy replied, “I do not have time to play. I have to work for my family and we need a house for shelter. Can you help me?"

"Sorry, I do not have any house. But you can chop off my branches to build your house". So the man cut all the branches of the tree and left happily. The tree was glad to see him happy but the man never came back since then. The tree was again lonely and sad.

One hot summer day, the man returned and the tree was delighted. "Come and play with me!" the tree said. "I am getting old. I want to go sailing to relax myself. Can you give me a boat?" said the man. "Use my trunk to build your boat. You can sail far away and be happy." So the man cut the tree trunk to make a boat. He went sailing and never showed up for a long time.

Finally, the man returned after many years. "Sorry, my boy. But I do not have anything for you anymore. No more apples for you", the tree said. "No problem, I do not have any teeth to bite," the man replied. "No more trunk for you to climb on". "I am too old for that now," the man said. "I really cannot give you anything, the only thing left is my dying roots," the tree said with tears.

"I do not need much now, just a place to rest. I am tired after all these years," the man replied. "Good! Old tree roots are the best place to lean on and rest, come sit down with me and rest." The man sat down and the tree was glad and smiled with tears.

Now, replace the tree in the story with parents. When we are young, we love to play with our Mum and Dad; but when we grow up, we leave them, only to come to them whenever we need support – material or emotional, or when we are in trouble. And no matter what, our parents always are there by our side and give us everything they can just to make us happy. Always, we take them for granted and don't appreciate all they do for us, until it's too late.

It’s the same with our divine parent too. Whenever we are beset with problems, we cry out to Him for help, how many times do we think of Him when everything is going pleasant and beautiful in our lives?

Illustrations: S B Sai Krishna, SSSIHL

- Heart2Heart Team