Be Bamboo
By: Cheng Tong - Dec 08, 2021
In Chinese painting first to learn
With soft and yielding brush
A grove of them so straight and tall
So green and swaying lush.
Stalks of green and others black
Leaves of varied size
When comes a storm it does not care
And will not fear demise.
Winds will blow and snow will fall
And ice will be so cloying.
It bends and folds down to the ground
And finds it not annoying.
The winds will die, the snow will melt,
Change is always lent.
The stalks will rise and stand up tall
No sign of having bent.
It is alone in nature wide
To yield so soft and pliant.
It bends and bows to fit the moment,
Never stands defiant.
The oak so tall with roots so deep
Suggesting strength and might
Against the wind that blows so hard
Instead will choose to fight.
The huff and puff of winter storm
Will test the oak’s resolve.
But nature’s will is always strong
And oaks will oft dissolve.
Its rigid stance can not withstand
The worst that nature tosses.
Refusal to give in to storm
Can cause it many losses.
Acorns fly and branches fall
And oaks begin to wobble.
That one last gust will be enough
To cause the oak to hobble.
One is life, the other death,
As bamboo yields and oaks defy.
The bamboo bends, the other falls,
But can not know the why.
Laozi says the answer’s clear,
It’s one to understand.
Soft can overcome the hard
And doesn’t need a hand.
Rigid represents the hard
And often leads to death.
While soft and yielding enables us
To take another breath.
I oh so rarely give advice
That is not mine to give.
But if I had to make a choice
I’d always choose to live.
Of bamboo and the mighty oak
Soft and hard their due,
I recommend for you to choose
Today to be bamboo.
Life’s winds and snows are want to come
And reckoning is due
I recommend for you to choose
Again to be bamboo.
There is no shame in yielding
To always choose to give
The point of life is pretty clear
So always choose to live.
The best of ways is learn to yield
To care the best for you.
I recommend for you to choose
Again to be bamboo.