ROTTEN APPLES
By: Blabbersalert
I went for a walk around the farm when I saw a little girl crouching down under the shade of an apple tree. She didn't feel anyone close as she was intently looking at the fallen apple on the ground.
"What are you doing?" I asked making my presence known. She then looked at me seemingly surprised by my appearance. However, when she looked at me in the eyes, which I also stared back, she eventually relaxes becoming aware that I meant no harm.
"I felt bad when I didn't see it fall." she started. "I might try to catch it but I know my hands are small."
"You can't help it, it is already on the ground." I said when she looked sad.
"I just don't understand." she said then looked back to the fallen apple on the ground. "why do good apples always falls down?" I sighed and also looked at the fallen apple while she was busy looking at the other rotten apples on the ground.
"It is already no good. The apple is already rotten at the back." the moment I laid my eyes on the apple I was already aware of its circumstance. Although the rotten area on the outside is small but you can already assume that the inside of the apple is no good already.
"But this side is still good and the tip is not rotten. So why did it fall?" she innocently asked again but this time, while looking at me.
"No matter how good it looks like on the outside, once it became rotten on the inside, it is bound to fall." I answered her trying to explain things to her as simple as I could.
"How can you sure that it already became rotten on the inside?" Again, she curiously asked me. I inwardly sighed. Why am I even talking to a liitle girl?
"Because there is already a small area there that is rotten and has become a hole. When you look at it closely, the small area already consumed the insides." I patiently explained to her.
"But why did it become rotten?"
"Because it was meant to rot?" I answered unsurely. "Actually, there are many reasons that lead the apple to rot, for example, the weather, the animals, the birds or maybe the worms. We can't tell."
"Did mama apple tree not do anything to protect her apples?"
"You see, there are a lot of apples there. One might be meant for the good harvest, another might be meant for your stomach and sometimes, there are apples that can't make it to your stomach and becomes rotten and mama apple tree should let go of them because it will also harm the other apples." I said trying to explain it the best way I could think of.
"Why do mama apple tree only look after the good apples?"
"Because the good apples are the only ones we can eat."
"So because we can't eat rotten apples, mama apple tree don't like them?" she asked and I nod. "It's sad."
"Why?" This time, it was my turn to ask her.
"Because the fallen apple on the ground was abandoned by mama apple tree because we don't like to eat them."
"If we eat them, it will only harm us." I told her then it hits me, how this situation can be so similar with the reality we are facing right now. Slowly, I approached the little girl and crouched down in front of her placing my right hand on her head.
"Mama apple tree made the decision of letting go of the rotten apple in order for the other apples to continue to grow healthy not because us, people dictates it to. You know, sometimes you have to remove some rotten apples or things in your life in order for yourself to grow like mama apple tree. When you grow up, you'll realize that there are things in your life that you thought you needed but you actually don't and these are the things that are toxic and can harm you, and when you continue to nurture that, your whole being will begin to rot until such point that you can no longer help yourself up and become stuck. What limits your growth and what not, is for you to decide. I know, letting go of something you're used to was never easy and becoming sad over the things that was gone is normal however, discarding rotten apples and learning from it can make new rooms for you to cultivate good apples." I said smilingly at the confused expression of the child.
I know she might not understand it for now but sooner or later, she'll realize it herself how self growth and knowing what's good for us will be important for her in the future.
"It's okay to be sad over the lost apple but sometimes you have to let go of it when it can already harm you."
