Be what we are

A king went to his garden and discovered that his trees, bushes and flowers were dying. The oak told him that he was dying because he could not be as tall as the pine. The king turned to the pine tree and found him feeling very dejected because he could not give grapes like the vine. And the vine was dying of sadness because it could not bloom like the rose. The rose cried for not being strong like the oak.

Then he found a fresh and blooming carnation.

The king asked him: How is it possible for you to grow so lush in the middle of such a musty and arid garden? The carnation replied: maybe it's because I assumed that when you planted me, you wanted carnations. If you had wanted an oak, you would have planted it. I remember that at that moment I said to myself: I will try to be a carnation in the best possible way, and here you have me as the most beautiful carnation in your garden.

We are what we are. We live ruminating our dissatisfactions, our absurd comparisons with others: if I were, if I had, if my life were ... always conjugating the uncertain future, not wanting to see that happiness is a personal and voluntary state...

We can choose today, be happy with what we are, with what we have, or live bitterly for what we don't have, or can't do. We can only flourish the day we accept that we are what we are, that we are unique, and that no one can do what we came to do.

Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you will be doing the impossible.

Father Ignacio Larrañaga, excerpted from Circular Letter 23