There is a beautiful story. A great emperor used to go around the town every day early in the morning when the sun was rising, on his horse. It was a beautiful exercise for him and also an experience of how the city was growing, how his capital was
becoming more and more beautiful.
He had a dream to make it the most beautiful place on the earth. But he was always puzzled… and he always stopped his horse and watched an old man, who must have been one hundred and twenty years old. He was always working in the garden, sowing seeds, watering trees – trees which would take hundreds of years to come to their youth; trees that live for four thousand years.
He was puzzled: this man is half in the grave; for whom is he sowing these seeds? He will never be
able to see the fruits and the flowers. It is impossible to conceive that this man is going to see the
outcome of his labor.
One day, he could not resist his temptation. He stepped down from the horse and asked the old man: ”I have been passing every day and the same question arises every time. Now it has become almost impossible not to interfere with your work, just for a moment. I want to know: for whom are you sowing these seeds? These trees will become ripe, young, when you are not here.”
The old man looked at the emperor and laughed. He said, ”If this had been the logic of my forefathers, then I would not have been able to get fruits and flowers and this beautiful garden. I am a gardener for generations – my father and my forefathers planted seeds, I have eaten the fruit.
What about my children? What about my children’s children? If they had also been of your opinion, there would have been no garden. People come from faraway places to see this place because I have trees that are thousands of years old. I am simply doing whatever I can in thankfulness.
