Salocin

Law of life

The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
That stood out in the open plain
And always got it share of rain,
Never became a forest king,
But lived and died a scrubby thing.
 
The man who never had to toil
To rise above the common soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man,
But lived and died as he began.
 
Good timber does not grow with ease;
The stronger the wind, the tougher the tree;
The farther the sky, the greater the length;
The more the storm, the more the strength;
By sun and by cold, by rain and by snows,
In trees and in man, good timber grows.
 
Where thickest stands the forest growth,
We find the patriarchs of both,
And they hold converse with the stars
Their broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much strife,
This is the common law of life.

Author unknown. Posted by nlvp at October 4, 2005 09:55 AM