A trader once approached a farmer to praise him for the bountiful fruit bearing trees that abounds his land. The farmer said, " I am just a transient, God owns the land I am standing on. " Asked about the trees, the farmer said, " I am just a harvester, God owns the trees and He made it bear fruits." The trader thinking that he could get the fruits for free again asked about the bountiful harvest, and the farmer said, " You have to pay for the fruits for I own them as God had given them to me as a gift for my toils."
My grandparents, by barrio standards, owns a big track of land. The land was nearly 5 hectares of arable land suitable for most agricultural products. We have no farm hand during those days so we usually allow other farmers with no land to plant their own crops. They do all the work on the farm and we get a third of the harvest as our share as land-owner. Grandfather was friendly with them so he and I usually visit the planters and share some food with them especially the fruits we gathered from our fruit-bearing trees.
Our land was blessed with a lot of coconut trees and other fruit-bearing ones including seven gigantic mango trees that have been there for over a hundred years. Monthly harvest of coconuts, root crops and seasonal fruits are more than enough for our family's needs and my grandparents were always more than willing to share what they reap with less fortunate neighbors and relatives. My grandparents always say that everything we get from the land are gifts from God. We plant the seeds and God makes them grow. The trees grows and God made them bear fruits. And the fruits are our gifts that we earn something for, and the gains maybe ours but we should share some with others. But first we must earn them, so we could share them.
My grandfather never spent a day in school, the reason why he did not learned how to read and write. He learned about life the hard way and imparted some lessons that I was able to make good use of in my later life. He was a very good listener but not easily fooled by people who wanted to take advantage of his ignorance. He got recognized as a USAFE veteran and earned himself a monthly pension of $50 but his agent fooled him into attaching his thumbprints in some documents that allowed the guy to claim his backpays. He later figured out that he was taken advantage of but did not make much of an issue about it and instead told me that I should never use my education to enrich myself with deceit. Vengeance to him was God to take.
He taught me that trees should be pruned of excess branches so it could grow better taller and healthier to bear more fruits. I also learned from him that crops survive better if did not rain too soon after planting them. The seeds develop roots that seeks its nourishment from the soil so it goes deeper when rain does not come too early. Early rain cause the crop to have shallow roots anchored in the soil so the crops easily gets uprooted when heavy rain falls. It is similar to our life's existence, we must develop good roots so we can overcome the heavy challenges of life
And the best lesson I learned is that he may not be able to read a single sentence or recite the alphabet but he could read other people's faces and understand the messages nature sends. He can read the signs the sun and the winds that tells what type of weather is coming. He could read the message trees send to communicate when it is the right time it needs to be cultivated for bearing fruits. And he understood that what he failed to gain from educating himself he could provide so we learn in school what he failed to learn and lead a better life that what he had.
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