Lessons of Life

"There was a man who had 4 sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go & look at a pear tree that was a great distance away. The 1st son went in the winter, the 2nd in the spring, the 3rd in summer, & the youngest son in the fall. When they had all gone & come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen. The 1st son said that the tree was ugly, bent, & twisted. The 2nd son said no it was covered with green buds & full of promise. The 3rd son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet & looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen. The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe & drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment. The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only 1 season in the tree's life. He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only 1 season, & that the essence of who they are & the pleasure, joy, & love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.
If you give up when it's winter, you will miss the promise of your spring, the beauty of your summer, fulfillment of your fall."

Moral: Don't let the pain of 1 season destroy the joy of all the rest. Don't judge life by 1 difficult season. Persevere through the difficult patches & better times are sure to come some time or later.

(Pixs abv are of the same place taken during different seasons!)
~forwarded by Sal-T~