THE CHINESE BAMBOO PRINCIPLE

“Life don’t only need starting power, but staying and finishing power. It won’t benefit you or anyone to have an electric start but an epileptic finish”

How much do you know about the Chinese bamboo tree?

While growing up, one of the things that piqued my curiosity as a young lad was the Chinese bamboo tree. I first saw this long, thin, flexible and never-breaking stick in one of my favourite Jet Li’s films back then – “Fist of Legend”. I have always wondered how a stick can be used for a fight with so many people and not even break. Well, I came to know its name in the late 2008 after graduating from secondary school.

The bamboo tree popularly known as the Chinese bamboo tree is one of the symbolic trees china is internationally known with. To grow the bamboo tree, you will have to plan the seed like any other tree or plant. After planting this tree you will have to water it, nurture it, fertilize it and take good care of it for a year. Wait a bit, did I just say a year? No, for two years, yet nothing will happen. You will have to consistently and patiently nurture it for the third year and the fourth year, yet nothing will visibly manifest even as a consolation for your seeming endless efforts.

I have a significant firsthand experience in farming, and I cannot recall any specie of plant or tree that requires a year to germinate and grow up in this part of the world. At least you can now relate and understand how frustrating taking care of a tree/plant like this can be. However, something miraculous and astonishing happens in the fifth year of planting this tree, it begins to shot up and manifest. It will greatly amaze you to know that this tree grows 80 – 90feet in just six weeks. Think of these for a moment; does this tree just lie down there in the ground for four years doing nothing? Why must it just be there and decide to spring up after four years? (You could go ahead and research up on this amazing tree – it will be worth it)

So much of the Chinese bamboo tree, what’s in for us?

It is quite educative to know about such a tree, but what is there for us to learn? I have always believed that there are lessons and revelations for us in almost everything that surrounds us, all we need do is to be opened minded and listen. The story of the Chinese bamboo tree from the day one it was planted to the very day or year it springs up carries within it life’s principles and lessons to last us a lifetime. Over the years, I have been learning and applying some of these principles in my life, and honestly, I am still learning, applying as I keep growing.

The most glaring principle in this story is that of patience and stick-to-itiveness. You see, one needful quality of a farmer is patience, I strongly doubt if one will make a successful farmer without it. It takes patience to go through the rigorous processes of clearing and ploughing a land, planting and nurturing a seed, waiting for the rain and eventually the harvest. A farmer needs stick-to-itiveness in order to stay through and remain true to all the nitty-gritties of ensuring that what he planted lacks nothing that will lead to a bumper harvest.  So I ask, is this any way different from making and living a meaningful and relevant life? Where would you be by now if you remove patience and stick-to-itiveness from your life? Could the absence of these two be the reason you are where you are today? 

Worthy of note again from the story of the bamboo tree is consistency. Most often, we get in life things through persistence and lack the consistency to keep them.  Regardless of the seeming discouragement of the Chinese bamboo tree not springing up in years, the farmer was consistent with watering it, applying fertilizer and doing everything needed to ensure that the tree finds a conducive atmosphere when it finally shows up. Odds are that the farmer might have encountered series of reasons to be discouraged and give up, yet consistency kept him at it

What do I do next?

To drive these points home, I will like to say with utmost sense of responsibility and certitude that without patience, stick-to-itiveness and consistency in your life, you will sure have a recipe for disaster that will take effect in no distant time. Are there things that you have been pursuing in your lives for years and it seems as if you are wasting your time? Hang in there.  Are there skills, talents and abilities you have been honing for quite sometimes and it looks as if they are not yielding tangible fruits? Stay through. Are there habits, attitudes and behaviours you have been putting in efforts to change but are eluding you? Remain true. If at any point you feel like giving up, giving in and throwing in the towel, remember the bamboo tree that stays in the ground for four years but grow exponentially and miraculously within a short period of time.

Roots are invisible but they control the affairs of the visible. The strength of your roots determine whether you stand or not in the days of adversity. The bamboo tree took its time to grow deep roots and established muscle that will enable it withstand every wind and storm that may rage against it. Yes, it may bend but won’t break. This should be your story as well. While it seems as if nothing is happening, invest in growing deep roots and stamina, this will ensure that you withstand the test of time.

Nothing worthwhile has ever been achieved at ease and in a rush. There are times that it will appear that the seed of your life is just buried underneath the soil of life’s struggles, forgotten and even hopeless, and you ask again and again, will my life ever spring forth with something beneficially amazing?  Be reminded that time is all that matters. While you wait, withhold not your hands. Keep watering it, keep nurturing it and at the fullness of time, you will be dumfounded at what and how your life will break forth.

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