种苹果 Growing apples

　　I realized I was holding an apple tree in the palm¹ of my hand. A little seed with the potential to become a beautiful big tree—a tree that could grow thousands of apples in its lifetime². Thousands of apples, each containing several seeds, each capable³ of growing a new tree which again could produce thousands of apples. Why then the world wasn’t filled with apple trees?

　　It is a rule of nature that only a few of these seeds grow. Most never do or are destroyed early on in their growth⁴.

　　And it came to my mind it’s quite often so with people’s dreams also. Wonderful ideas come to our minds but they die too soon—we don’t tend to the little saplings , we don’t protect them as we should. And then one day we wonder what happened to our dreams—why did they never come true?

　　I put the apple seed on the table, and bent⁵ down to see how the light was reflected from it, this nature’s tiny wonder. I wondered when someone was seriously growing apples, how many times they had to try to get a seed to germinate⁶ ? How much work did it require?

　　Maybe it was like with our dreams: the seeds of your dreams did not automatically⁷ grow. Planting an apple tree, it might take many tries. You might meet dozens of people until you met the true friend.

　　But if you kept on sowing⁸ the seeds of your dream, one day you would succeed. And after that others would comment you were lucky to be successful—when in fact you probably failed more often than you would like to count. But you were good at failing—you learned⁹, you adapted, and then with your new knowledge you tried again. And again. And again. And one day success was yours.

　　I picked up the apple seed again—but instead of throwing it away I took an empty flower pot, poured some earth into it and planted the seed. Maybe one day it would grow into a proud tree. I’d never know if I didn’t try.

　　我意识到被我捧在掌心的是棵苹果树。这颗小小的种子蕴藏着长成一棵美丽大树的潜力——这棵大树在它的生命中又会结出成千上万个苹果。每个苹果里又有几颗种子，每颗种子又可以长成一棵新的苹果树，再结出许多苹果。但为什么世界上并没有到处都是苹果树呢？

　　因为在自然规律的作用下，只有几颗种子能生长起来。大部分种子根本不能生长，即便生长起来也会夭折。

　　于是，这让我联想到，人们的梦想又何尝不是如此。我们常会有不错的想法，但这些想法也只是昙花一现——我们对这些“幼苗”不以为意，根本不去保护它们。而后有一天我们疑惑梦想为何从未实现？

　　我把这颗苹果种子放在桌上，弯下腰观察这颗反着光的小小造物杰作。我想，如果有人一心想种苹果的话，要尝试多少次才能让种子发芽？这需要多少付出？

　　或许这一如我们的梦想：梦想的种子不会自己长大。种下一棵苹果树需要付出许多辛劳。遇见一个知己需要在茫茫人海中寻寻觅觅。

　　但如果你不懈地播种梦想的种子，总有一天你会成功。之后，人们会说你的成功是因为上天的眷顾——殊不知连你自己都不晓得成功前究竟经历过多少次失败。但失败之于你并非坏事——你会适应失败，并从中汲取经验教训，然后用这些经验教训再次尝试。一次又一次。如此反复。终有一天成功如期而至。

　　我再次拿起这颗苹果种子——这次我并未将它扔掉，而是拿来了一个空花盆，倒了些土进去，把这颗种子种在里面。或许有一天它会长成一棵骄傲的苹果树。只有试过了才知道。

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