No, i am not talking about the rubber plantations, nor the gummy barked trees... Nothing sticky about them really! After the glorious autumn, almost all the trees look just sticks - brown and bare!
It was a rainy day and people were almost scowling as i crossed them... i was in my weekday routine - walking to office! As i sought the comfort of an extended walkway under the building, i noticed a bush which was actually used as an ash tray by the smokers taking refuge in the walkway (and making non-smoking pedestrians like me very miserable). I twisted my nose in disgust as i saw the cigarette buds and mentally despised the smokers and their contribution to cleanliness! It was an insignificant dirty, sticky (sans leaves in Dec), ordinary bush until a blissful sparkle caught my eye...
The rain water droplets had been caught in its thin sticks and they were almost sticking to the sticks until another bigger droplet made them heavy enough for gravity to take charge. I noticed every one of those little sticky branches sparkling with a new glow, despite the gloomy weather, the cig buds, the spits, etc. Life is beauitful, words cannot describe the tenderness and warmth and pleasant feeling my heart changed into! All this happened in a matter of 5 foot steps, but memories that are worth cherishing for ever to come.
Since then, i have begun to appreciate sticky trees much more... close to spring, the Geneva canton gardeners decided to give a new makeover to welcome spring - chop off the sticks, trim the trees and left only stumps behind. As the trees await the Spring for new colorful clothes, with rolled-up biceps, i smile at them everyday and i acknowledge their loveliness. God's creations are marvelous!
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Thank God for autumn colors
Even though Autumn is not as glorious as in Vermont, US or even The Netherlands, i was able to appreciate the changing hues in Geneva as i kept track of one particular type of tree in front of my office. The beauty was that along the river (or rather the canal), i was able to the same type of tree coming alive in different colors at the sametime. If i have confused you, i have met my objective...
The same type is planted every few meters, and the beauty is that every tree is unique in changing colors in its owntime in the same season. While one was still green, another was in bright maroonish red, another in flaming orange and another almost showing naked branches... Parallel this to humans: we all grow up, all of us go through difficulties in life, but our responses/approach to them are so different, so unique, yet in the overall sense of being humans, we end up doing the same. And i thought any tree changed its overall colors all at the sametime. Boy, was i in for a surprise!
I was walking back home in December (or Jan?) through the park behind Cornavin (Montbrilliant??) and i was struck by a very tall tree, almost as tall as a ceder in Lebanon, with different colors in the same tree - green below, yellow in the middle and bright orangish red at the top. I stood there for a second, enjoying the beauty of the Lord's creation. Isnt it through that we also feel differently in different areas in our life? I said softly, je t'aime Papa and had almost tears in my eyes. He is so marvelous and He gives me opportunities to notice that and acknowledge every single day; yet i am so blinded by the world and by my own misguided priorities most of the times.
The same type is planted every few meters, and the beauty is that every tree is unique in changing colors in its owntime in the same season. While one was still green, another was in bright maroonish red, another in flaming orange and another almost showing naked branches... Parallel this to humans: we all grow up, all of us go through difficulties in life, but our responses/approach to them are so different, so unique, yet in the overall sense of being humans, we end up doing the same. And i thought any tree changed its overall colors all at the sametime. Boy, was i in for a surprise!
I was walking back home in December (or Jan?) through the park behind Cornavin (Montbrilliant??) and i was struck by a very tall tree, almost as tall as a ceder in Lebanon, with different colors in the same tree - green below, yellow in the middle and bright orangish red at the top. I stood there for a second, enjoying the beauty of the Lord's creation. Isnt it through that we also feel differently in different areas in our life? I said softly, je t'aime Papa and had almost tears in my eyes. He is so marvelous and He gives me opportunities to notice that and acknowledge every single day; yet i am so blinded by the world and by my own misguided priorities most of the times.
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