The Loss of Hope

In desperation, a farmer was drawing water up from a well.

As he received his life giving bounty, he then hurriedly ran to a nearby garden and drenched his heat withered crops.  When he saw that his efforts had little impact on the garden, the man dropped to his knees and began to weep. 

A very old man was standing nearby and tried to comfort him holding out his hand. The farmer looked up at him and spoke; 

"what shall I do?"  "I have given so much of myself in the hope of a plentiful harvest and now I have nothing". "There is no hope left, all I had is gone".  The old man looked at him and said;"what you had here was born of the labor of love, and your cultivation of its roots cultivated within yourself the roots of love and the hope for the crops to grow and give back to you that which you desired, and now your hope is gone".  "You should then know that the love you had nurtured from your toil cannot be lost". "For love cannot be smothered by grief without the hand of one who chooses to smother it, is this your choice"?

The farmer looked at him and said; "I did love my garden but my hope for it is now gone".  The old man then said; "hope is like an ember left from a raging fire, in that it could still become that from which it was." "But you cannot dwell on the expectations of something you desire and what may come to be". "For the love you had for your garden will always be love and will be the only thing that you can keep inside of yourself that will become more than what you are".  

"So I say; when you hope, your hope can be an expectation of false reliance, but if in your misfortune you understand and accept the pain of your loss, and from this you do not smother your love, it will be the seed of a new garden and a new found wisdom that eternally grows inside your soul".