The Tree Of Life

The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
That stood out in the open plain,
and always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil,
Who never had to win his share,
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow in ease,
The stronger wind the tougher the trees,
The farther sky the greater length,
The more the storm the more the strength,
By sun and cold, by rain and snows,
In tree or man good timber grows.

Where thickest stands the forest growth
We find the patriarchs of both.

And they hold converse with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife...
This is the common Law of Life.

by: Douglas Malloch