A time for everything

There is a time for everything,and a season for every activity under heaven:a time to be born and a time to die,a time to plant and a time to uproot,a time to kill and a time to heal,a time to tear down and a time to build,a time to weep and a time to laugh,a time to mourn and a time to dance,a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,a time to embrace and a time to refrain,a time to search and a time to give up,a time to keep and a time to throw away,a time to tear and a time to mend,a time to be silent and a time to speak,a time to love and a time to hate,a time for war and a time for peace.

What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.

While on a trip to Haiti many years ago I happened to mention to one of our more pensive leaders that the banana tree bears fruit only once and then it must be cut down to allow for a new plant to grow in it's place. He appeared somewhat nonplussed by that new information and we bumped along the rutted road for another 30 minutes or so. The monotonous hum of the engine grinding was suddenly broken by our pensive leaders declaration, "I've got it!" and now all ears are trained on him. "We have but one life to live and then we die, that is the message of the banana tree." While not terribly profound to the rest of us in the truck, this thought penetrated our leaders heart; he has one life to live and then he dies. One life to make an impact, one moment in time to do fantastic things. He returned home to walk both coast to coast and border to border across the United States for causes he believes in and last I heard he is in the process of walking around the world. Walking, walking, (as opposed to walking to the train station and putting 4 or so hundred miles between me and the last trail walking) as in putting one foot in front of the other walking. That is a lot of miles and a lot of making good on his understanding that we are given but one life to live and then we die. One other unique thing to the banana tree is that each tree produces live offshoots that can be cut from the mama tree re planted, producing a new plant and a new crop of fruit. I have but one life to live to reproduce what is good and desirable in me, by God's grace may I produce both fruits and shoots.

-Trimama