Flower or Willow
There’s an old saying from China.
“有心栽花花不开 无心插柳柳成荫”
Literally, this saying just reveals a common gardener’s knowledge.
“Nurturing a flower with full intention, yet it fades without blooming. Planting a willow branch with little care, yet it becomes a tree.”
But I really like the other version of the interpretation.
“Follow love, and it will flee; flee love, and it will follow you.”
If we push too hard for something that we desire, it often backfires and results in the opposite outcome. Just don’t panic and let it be. The result may surprise you.
I guess through life, we all have different sorts of agendas or life-goals that we feel like to accomplish before a deadline. But life is full of unexpectany, and some goals just cannot be met before our deadlines. It’s not because we are not hardworking. The reason may simply because the goals are not suitable for us. Since we’ve always been focused (or narrow-minded) on the tasks, we forgot to jump out of the box and to be reflective on “ME”. I guess it is helpful to not be too stubborn on the goals, as we will need some spontaneities and the courage to let go the things which are not quite right for us. In the end, to embrace the idea of “I may not have a pot of blooming roses; but instead, I will have a wood of willow trees.”