Good Timber
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 gain and farm his patch of
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 with
ease,
The stronger wind, the stronger
trees,
The further sky, the greater
length,
The more the storm, the more
the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and
snow,
In trees and men good timbers
grow.
Where thickest lies the forest
growth
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the
stars
Whose broken branches show the
scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.
------------------------
(Douglas Malloch as quoted in
Sterling W. Sill,
MAKING THE MOST OF YOURSELF
[Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, Inc.,
1971], p. 23)