Mansanitas

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I once pondered on the beauty of a profession, probably because someone dear to me has asked it for so many times in so many ways for the past years.

And for so many times and in so many ways, I've tried to answer her. Most of my answers were half-baked, though, probably because I was also not too happy with the way things have progressed in my profession.

(At that time, I blandly called profession a 'job sans happiness'.)

The breakthrough came today, at 5:02 PM, as I looked beyond my office window with my office mate, marveling at a mansanitas tree.

Do you know that a mansanitas does not grow that easily? my office mate shares. I tilted my head towards her direction, silently telling her I was listening.

A mansanitas tree does not grow from its seeds. Neither does it grow from its fruit. And it simply cannot grow from its cuttings, although its wood is of fine quality.

The mansanitas fruit has to be eaten by a specific bat species first, and only from this bat's 'poo-poo' can a mansanitas land on the earth and multiply.

This is why you should always protect any mansanitas tree that you see; after all, the bats are getting hunted because people always mistake them for the dark arts simply because they are nocturnal, she adds, as we both looked wistfully at the tree, which I now stare with different eyes.

Things are usually taken at face value, especially in this day and age where life passes you by in a snap that it leaves you less time to appreciate it.

So try to pause, and try to look at the things around you, discover it once more. Relearn it. Explore it. Until it becomes an entirely different thing altogether because you tried to understand it in a way that only your heart and mind combined can.




That is why I believe I am blessed when I can experience learning and exploring new things out of something so common in every day of my life.

This is the beauty of my profession. What is yours?


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