Planter or a Builder??

Paolo Coelho in one of his recent books entitled as Brida speaks of an anonymous text from the traditions, which describes basically two attitudes that a person could take towards his/her life. It is either that of a planter or a builder. Now, what is the radical difference between a planter and a builder? Unlike the planters, the builders might take several years over their tasks, spending a good amount of their time and energy into the building work but one day they come to an end of their work when the building is finished.  Then they find themselves hemmed in by their own walls and life loses its taste and vigor for them because there is nothing more to look forward to. Everything is finished as the building now stands as a finished product.

Now, in the case of the planters the story is different. They endure storms and all the vicissitudes of the seasons; they have rarely time to rest and little by little they do their work to bring up the garden.  But unlike the building, the garden never stops growing and they too never stop growing.  The presence of life in the garden adds new meaning, vision and color to their own lives.  While it requires the gardener’s constant attention, it also allows life for the gardener to be a great adventure; a great school of learning and everyday they have something new to look forward to.

Now, the choice is up to me, who do I want to be? A planter or a builder?