a lesson from a Chinese Bamboo tree

It starts with a tiny seed planted by a farmer.  

The seed, when planted, watered, and nurtured for an entire growing season does not appear to have grown even an inch. 

Then, after the second growing season, a season in which the farmer takes extra care to water, fertilize and care for the bamboo tree, the tree still hasn’t sprouted. 

So it goes as the sun rises and sets for four solid years. 

The farmer has nothing tangible to show for all of his labor trying to grow the tree.

Then, along comes year five.

In the fifth year that Chinese bamboo tree seed finally sprouts and 

the bamboo tree grows up to eighty feet in just one growing season! 

Or so it seems….

Unbeknownst to the farmer, the little tree HAD been growing those four years.  It's just that all the growth was taking place underground.  The tree was working that whole time to develop a root system strong enough to support its potential for outward growth in the fifth year and beyond.

Sometimes we are like that.  We go through things in life that force us to grow in ways that might not appear to be obvious to others.  But inside, we are changing, growing, being strengthened.  We are changed.  

The last few years have sucked.   

Life has been harder than we ever thought it would be.

But we have survived.

I finally see light and am excited about our future.  

And as I was sitting in sacrament meeting today, I realized that all the while my roots have been growing beneath me.  My foundation is strong.  I can withstand a lot more than I thought.  Much of that due to a strong companion who showed me the way.

Life is good.

It's really good.

And the series of unfortunate events that we have traversed these past few years, 

have made us stronger.