On one visit to my parents I was sitting on the patio having my morning coffee. I begin to think about the willow tree that has been standing at the back of their yard for over 50 years. My sister and I were young and we told Dad that we would like to have a weeping willow tree. I can’t remember why we wanted one, but Dad obliged us one day on a car ride through the country by pulling alongside the road and ripping a small branch off a willow tree, taking it home, and planting it.

Despite any help from my sister or me, (we didn’t water it, fertilize it, or do anything), the tree began to grow and in time provided the shade, hide and seek cover, climbing limbs, and all the other things a kid would want a tree to do.

Over the years it has been hit by lightning, severely pruned by multiple wind storms, and eventually started to rot. Dad,  a number of times, thought of having what remained of it removed but after learning the cost he decided the tree wasn’t bothering anyone, so he just left it. I’m glad he did because while sipping my coffee it reminded me that many people treat their lives like we treated our willow tree.

Some people are living with half a heart. If they work they just do the minimum required; nothing more, nothing less. Outside of work they don’t engage themselves in activities that would allow them to grow. They watch TV shows that have no redeeming value or engage in destructive behavior to mask some pain in their lives.

Mom and Dad’s tree was lucky. It didn’t need anything else to grow. You and me on the other hand should have constant enrichment; the right kind of fertilizer and water.

Don’t sit around and let life happen to you, feed and enrich yourself with knowledge and purpose.

Have a Great Masonic Day!