Once upon a time, there was a young tree born in to the orchard of life.

As the little tree stretched his limbs, he was so excited to be alive. He looked up and he
saw that all around him were many big trees.

As soon as he was old enough, he cried out to the trees with great happiness.
“Please tell me. What is my life purpose? What is it that I’m supposed to do?”
And the trees looked down tenderly.

“Well in order to fulfil your purpose, you must make bark that looks like this…” they said
looking down at themselves, “…and leaves that look like these. And if you do this well
enough, one day you will be able to stand proud, and you will make oranges that look just
like these.”

The little tree was thrilled; he finally knew what his life purpose was. And so as the days
turned into weeks, he tried his best to make bark like that and leaves like those. But
sadly, he soon realized that no matter how hard he tried, he could not get his bark to look
like that, or his leaves to look like those. And so he felt the bitter disappointment of
someone who had failed and not only himself, but those he cared for.

The orange trees never spoke of their feelings, but he felt their disappointment and it stung.
The little tree grew slowly. One day he was tall enough to see beyond the orange trees.
To his amazement he saw that at the edge of the orchard, were trees that looked very
different to the orange trees.

And so he called out to them, “You over there! I see you are also different. Perhaps you
can tell me, what is my life purpose? I long to know. Please tell me what it is that I must
do.”

These trees would not say much.

“Your life purpose is to grow thorns that look like these,” they said. “If you do not grow
thorns you will fail in your life purpose and you will surely perish. This world is filled with
creatures that will destroy you, if you do not protect yourself.”
And they would say no more.

So, the young tree sat and thought about this for a long time.

I have grown far too relaxed, he thought. I now understand that this is a dangerous world.
He tried his best to create thorns. And yet again he failed – none would grow. Each day
that ended, reminded him more and more, that he was failing to fulfil his life purpose. The
frustration that grew within him started to show. He could not grow thorns, and so he
grew thorns of an even more dangerous kind – he grew invisible ones. And the birds and the insects that once were his friends, he chased away.

Even though the orchard was bustling with life - he now felt completely and utterly alone.
And the days dissolved into weeks, and the seasons changed.

One night in the darkness and in his aloneness, he woke to hear the thunderous cries of
a death light. A fire had come. It swept through the orchard destroying everything in its
path, leaving only blackness in its wake.

Everything that could run did, but the trees could not. Even the thorn trees were
defenceless against this hot predator. The fire approached with angry speed and was
shouting with a noise that was loader than anything the little tree had every known. Just
when he thought the fire would take him, the winds changed and the fire retreated. He
eventually fell into an exhausted sleep.

In the morning light he woke to see an orchard that he didn’t recognise. All around him
was – nothing. Instead of green, there was black. And instead of trees, now only columns
of smoke, rising from patches of earth that hissed and spat. He was the only one that had
survived the fire. He realized that he was now truly, completely and totally alone.

He cried out to the sky and to the burnt orchard – “Why?”

The reply was an eerie silence.

Utterly alone, he stood. The days dissolved into weeks and he felt himself retreating
inside of himself, deeper and deeper still. With no one to speak to, he began to do
something he had not done before – he began to talk to himself. After a while, he realized
that if he kept quiet and went to a still place inside himself, a peaceful inner voice would
emerge. This voice sounded just like his, but it was somehow wiser and more peaceful
than he knew himself to be. So he began to speak often to this inner voice. It eased his
loneliness and it greatly eased the burden of the empty orchard.

As the days blossomed into weeks, he nurtured this new relationship within himself, and
then one day it occurred to him. Why don’t I just ask the voice inside of me, the same
question I once asked of the orange trees and the thorn trees?

And so he breathed deeply and put his attention inside himself. Then he asked, “Please
tell me, for you seem wiser than I. What is my life purpose? What is it that I am supposed
to do?” His heart felt pain because the question was so deep. He opened his mind and
waited.

The quiet voice inside of him whispered, “You are asking the wrong question.”
“What do you mean the wrong question? I want to know what I must do. I want to know
my purpose,” he replied.

“You are asking the wrong question,” the gentle voice continued. “Instead of asking what
it is that you must do, you should rather ask, ‘Who am I?’”

A moment of silence passed, and then the voice explained. “If you do not know who you
are, how will you know what to do?”

If I do not know who I am, how will I know what to do? He repeated to himself.
As the understanding hit home, he felt sadness and he said, “But… but I don’t know who
I am.”

And the still voice replied with kindness, “You are who you have always been. Nothing
has the power to change who you are. Only you have the power to forget, that is all.
Even you cannot change who you are, you can only forget or hide.”

He looked down at himself, small and unimpressive. This is on purpose? He wondered
disbelieving.

“What if I can’t remember who I am? How do I remember me?” he asked...

...to be continued

http://thoughtofficial..com.ng/2017/06/purpose-of-life-apple-tree-part-1.html