Chinese Bamboo Tree in the Google Age

Credits: Google Images

From the Stone Age, we have now come to Google age, information age or so called the digital age. With laptops, mobile phones, gadgets and all technological devices all around, we live with our digital natives, in this fastest changing world.

Instant access to everything is the key feature of this age. Whatever and whenever we want to search, Google has its answer ready for us within fraction of seconds. If we want to purchase any product, Amazon, Flipkart, and all kinds of online stores have our orders ready to be delivered at our door steps within no time. Click the cursor and we get all our answers. Everything has just become so easy for all of us.

In this age, we love speed. Fast results. And quick progress. And interestingly in words of RD Laing, “We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing.”

Now living in this age, with such perception of the present, do we still have existence of words like persistence and patience in our dictionary as the success mantras for our survival, growth and progress?

The answer could be found in a famous story of the Chinese bamboo tree here.

When the bamboo is planted, unlike any other plant, it does not show any sign of its progress in the very first year.

What happens in the second year? Does the seed grow? Does it show any sign of its progress? The answer is still a big No. The second year goes like the first year. No sign of growth and development. The farmer waters and fertilizes the plant with his consistent efforts and wait with persistence.

The third year comes and goes like the early two years showing no sign, no growth and no progress.

The forth years comes and still the farmer does not lose his hope. The result is the same like the first year, the second year and the third year. No sign. No growth. No progress. But the farmer is not discouraged by the result. He waits in hope. The reality is something different for him.

Then comes the fifth year, the farmer waters the plant with the same hope, with patience and perseverance and then the miracle happens. The plant grows within six weeks and shoots up between the height of 80 to 100 feet.

Now, what does the story convey? Was the tree grown in a single day? What would have been the result had the farmer not watered the plant in the fifth year?

Well, the answers of all these, we should all know, shouldn’t we? For all these years, the plant was working on its rooting. It was making its foundation strong. When the right time came. It grew, it bloomed and it reached for the sky.

The same lesson applies to many of our life situations.  And here are few lessons to be learnt from this Chinese bamboo tree in the Google age for all of us.

• Despite living in this Google age, there are certain things which will take time. We cannot get them at the click of our mouse button. We need to be patient with them and practice perseverance.
• Parenting, friendship and conjugal relationship will take time to bloom and flourish. We need to water these relationship consistently with love, care, mutual trust, faith and understanding and should not wait for the results instantly.
• Certain habits, projects and dreams take time in their maturation and fulfillment. They may take one year, two years, three years, four years or may be five years like the Chinese bamboo tree. So, we need to be patient in such pursuits and must not give up just after watering at the beginning of the first season.

Blessed we are to be born in this Google age. But if we just learn to have patience and perseverance  in our lives, our lives would truly be wonderful and great!