Daniel Kolenda

“The tree that never had to fight For sun and sky and air and light, But 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 To heaven from the common soil, 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 trees; The farther sky, the greater length; The more the storm, the more the strength. By sun and cold, by rain and snows, In trees and men, good timbers grow. Where thickest stands the forest growth, We find the patriarchs of them both. And they hold converse with the stars Whose broken branches show the scars Of many winds and of much strife— This is the common law of life.1”
― Daniel Kolenda, Live Before You Die: Wake up to God's Will for Your Life