Have you ever noticed how dead a fruit tree

appears to be during the winter? All barren

and lonely and forlorn?

Unless you can inspect it closely, or

break a branch to determine whether it is

still alive, you can easily arrive at the

conclusion the tree is dead.

But far from it! It's not dead — deep

within its roots and trunk constant activity

takes place, preparing for the spring. A

mysterious force works within it - not visible,

it is true — but all powerful in its universal nature.

All at once, in the spring, tiny little

nubbins magically appear, and leaves and

buds that forecast the coming of the time

of fruitage.

And so it is with some of us as we struggle with

the transition period from salesman to problem

solver —from getting to giving —from making

the kill to helping our neighbor.

But many of us look upon this time as dead time

— as unproductive time — as frustration time.

And we despair, and a few of us lose heart and

wearily turn back into the jungle and take up once

again our machete. We just didn't realize that it

was winter for our fruit tree — a very necessary

time of rebuilding and strengthening and growing.

I have watched a number of graduates

(subscribers of the Counselist Newsletter) l

ose the battle for lack of faith and courage,

and the knowledge that to change so radically

back to what we really should be and should

be doing requires repairing and rebuilding

and recharging of our inner selves. For our

outer experiences are a direct reflection of

our inner selves - always.

Why do we always think everything

we deem good must happen today? Now!

We don't want to wait, or to earn, or to

grow into this good — we want it right

now! So there!

Well, I have a little secret for you. That

ain't the law! The law requires that to

achieve success (its own definition of

success for us, by the way) we must change

to meet the demands of that success, we

must grow big enough and strong enough

and courageous enough to be able to sup-

port and defend that success. Otherwise

we are expecting a gullible law to give us

what we want for our own enjoyment without

our being competent enough to maintain it.

The result would be disastrous!

Those of us who took to heart the analogy

of the River, and who stopped to listen to

the knowledge within each of us, discovered

we really had little to do with our

success — for it was a success which most

of us really didn't understand as success

for a period, and certainly one we would

not have deliberately chosen.

But success it was — and is. And

unless the winter period had prepared us

for this success, it could have destroyed us.

And that, too, has happened. I have witnessed

it too many times to doubt it for a second.

So, let's look at your situation right

now. Let's assume business is slow, you

don't have enough CA's (Client Applicants),

your sales have fallen drastically, your money

is dwindling away. So what? That's just evidence

of the winter growing period. If you stay with the

principle of desiring to help your

neighbor, there is no way you can ultimately

fail. The Law won't let you.

 

There is another mistake many of us

make. We actually think our success, our

welfare, our bank balance is our responsibility.

We believe we have to resort to any

number of maneuvers in order to make

enough money to put bread on the table,

and make the car payment. We even lie

awake nights worrying because we have

money only sufficient for four months.

But how long is the winter? And do

you really think the Law will allow you to

starve if you are on the right path? What

about the Jews and the manna? Only

Moses had grown to the point he could

handle a daily supply of food without effort.

The rest of them eventually ruined the

whole thing by taking the initiative and

attempting to store up what was

automatically theirs every day through

Moses growth.

Our trouble is we believe in nothing,

really. Oh, sure, Moses did act as a channel

for the manna, but that was thousands

of years ago. It can't happen today.

Oh, yeah? The Law that produced the manna

and the loaves and fish is older than the earth,

and will always exist, is just as applicable today

as it was it was in Moses’s time.

We've grown so dense and crass, so blind

to the existence and operation of the

Law, we attempt to store up like the squirrels

do. But if you have some money, some

credit, you have already done that.Wasting a

lifetime storing up is the wasting of the time

required to grow, and a prolonging of

the lack of success.

We can't grow as long as we spend

our time, our energies, and our attention

toward storing up. It is as simple as that.

We should be busy every day, every

hour, every minute concentrating on

learning, improving, searching for

problems instead of sales, growing as

quickly a we can in order to be capable

and qualified to handle and protect the

ultimate success as it develops within

each of us -- uniquely for each of us.

The Law will not provide you with a

handkerchief for your weeping eyes.

It will supply what you need as you need

it while you grow and change and improve.

That’s a fact!

Quit expecting something for nothing.

You have worked many years to sully what

was created — how can you expect instant

change — instant reward — instant success?

Just realize the winter doesn’t last

forever — there is a limited time for growing

— so take your eyes away from the wall

board listing the kills and set them on the

goal ahead — the goal of actually being a

worthy individual with a mission to

accomplish, a job to do, and a growing period

which will not only allow it to happen,

 but will make it happen.

So, get to it. And don't stop - EVER.

________________________

1. The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island,

but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.

3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.

4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.

5. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.

6. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.

7. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blown apart.

8. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

9. Time flies like an arrow.  Fruit flies like a banana.

10. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.

___________________

I finally got around to going fishing this morning but after a while I ran out of worms.

Then I saw a cottonmouth with a frog in his mouth, and frogs are good bass bait.

Knowing the snake couldn't bite me with the frog in his mouth, I grabbed him right behind the head, took the frog and put it in my bait bucket.

Now the dilemma was how to release the snake

without getting bit. I grabbed my bottle of Jack Daniels and poured a little whiskey in its mouth.

His eyes rolled back, he went limp, I released

him into the lake without incident, and carried on my fishing with the frog.

A little later I felt a nudge on my foot.  There was

that same snake with two frogs in his mouth.