SPRINGTIME
As I passed the old cherry tree in February,
It had a bare and forlorn look about it.
It contained not a shred of beauty.
In fact, it required no small act of faith to believe
That it was still alive.
I passed the tree again in April.
When I looked at it now I could scarcely believe my eyes,
So great was the transformation it had undergone
In that short interval of time.
It was now decked out in a robe of brilliant blossoms.
Two months ago it looked like a corpse;
Now it was an eloquent witness to life.
From where has all this beauty come? I asked myself.
Could it by chance have fallen out of the sky
And landed on the tree?
Or had someone waved a magic wand over the tree?
Nothing of the kind.
All this newness, freshness and fragrance;
All these buds, blossoms and shoots
had come from within the tree itself!
On looking at it back in February,
When it was still in the grip of winter,
Who could have believed that it contained all this?
Sometimes on evidence of just one encounter
We write off people as having no possibilities.
We do those people a grave injustice.
Every human being is a well of possibilities.
If in the case of some people
These possibilities have not yet manifested themselves,
All it means is that for them spring has not yet come.
Fr. Flor McCarthy
Moving words. How do they speak to you? Please comment and share your thoughts!
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