BENDED BUT UNBROKEN

One of the toughest things to do in life is to maintain a great sense of strength and character even in the face of tough and challenging situations. I must say that tougher is it to maintain great character than to acquire them in the first place.

Charisma will earn you a space at the top. Character will keep you there.

How truer can this saying be?

Source

So just like the wise King Solomon did, I sort to look for natural representations of these virtues - positivity, doggedness, levelheadedness, teachability, availability and so many other great character sets - and I needed not to look so far. Just behind my parents' house is this free-growing pawpaw tree and I had a lot to learn from it.

Have you ever seen a pawpaw tree in a really heavy downpour? It still amazes me to see how it doggedly maintains its strong rooting even in the face of a strong windy rain heavily stroking its leaves and branches. My God!!! How does it withstand this?

If you don't know, the pawpaw tree is not one of the strongest trees there are. As a matter of fact, a fairly sharp machete will give a clean slice through it at just one stroke. It's leaves are very tender and branches, so hollow that you will wonder if they will withstand the slightest of harsh weather.

But to its advantage it uses its seemingly weak attribute. To every direction the windy rain pushes it, it turns with a positive character knowing that it will not last forever. Even though it might have to be tossed to and fro for hours, it makes no much difference to it because it realizes that the sun is just somewhere behind the clouds.

In life, some things are bound to happen. Well, at least you can't stop the rain from pouring down but you make decisions of various kinds to ensure you don't get drenched. So don't get it twisted. Tough times are a constant thing in life; as constant as the sun with each tough moment dynamically varying in its degree of intensity with respect to the other. However, he who arms himself with character will sail right through them all.

Now I am back at the house on a visit trip and guess what? The tree is still standing

Tough times may last long but he who outlasts the tough time lives to enjoy the spoil thereof

We can produce great results for ourselves in this new year if we adorn ourselves with a great sense of character despite whatsoever be the thing life throws at us.

Thank you all for taking out time to read through. I hope hivers in @amazingnature, @freewriter @discoveryit @gems @lifestyle will find this a good read.

All unsourced pictures were taken by me