Growing up, I spent time on the farm. I always enjoyed watching the maize seeds we sowed germinate, grow up and actually bear maize fruits. It was fascinating to me how one maize seed produces so much maize. As the youngest child, during the planting season I follow my elder brothers. They use sticks to make holes in the ground and I will have to count two or three maize seeds and put them in the hole, cover it up with soil.
After obeying the rule of sowing only two or three maize seeds per hole I would get tired, don’t call me lazy, I was 11; I would now put about 6 to 10 seeds in a hole now. This was to finish my bowl of maize seeds faster and then I can rest. My sins will be covered until the maize seeds germinate.
When you heard, my name being trumpeted on the farm after about five days, it means they are seeing 10 maize plants germinating out of one hole. They would have to pull some of them out and transplant them at other parts of the farm. That was not the end of my mischief on the farm, when we are supposed to weed after a few weeks, I will end up cutting down some of the maize because I am too tired to weed out only the weed everything in the path of my cutlass or hoe has to go down.
What I learned contrary to the belief when we sow we reap is that when we sow we don’t reap we wait. Yes, we wait. I thought by looking closely at the maize I could see them growing taller and taller. I would stare at the growing young maize plants wishing they will start producing maize I can plug. For weeks, months we will weed, wait, weed and wait. I often get frustrated.
My frustration is deepened when on my way to the farm I see other people’s farms with maize ready for harvest. I get to our own farm only to be disappointed.
I need you to understand this point. It is important to understand that the efforts you are sowing, the sacrifices you are making, the time you spend to study, the time I spend sitting behind the computer every dawn waiting on inspiration daily is not going to bear fruit instantly. Your efforts cannot be measured and it will not yield the desired results right away.
I have a life philosophy that “WE SHALL WIN, NOT IMMEDIATELY BUT DEFINITELY”. I always didn’t like the waiting period but it is important we understand that we will have to wait for the breakthrough.
To clarify something very important, there is a difference between waiting and laziness. You don’t lazy about and say you are waiting. Whilst our maize plant is growing, we weed and sometimes apply manure. When the rain is not forth coming sometimes we have to irrigate it.
When the plant is fully matured and produces maize fruits, we harvest with joy. The weeks of waiting doesn’t matter and is never the same as the joy of harvesting. We planted, we waited, we worked and then we harvest.
Whatever dream you are working on, if you have sowed, understand that you have to wait. You have to build yourself. It won’t happen overnight. We shall win, not immediately but definitely.
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