Day Sixty-Four · Planting a Tree

Last spring, I planted a loquat tree in my hometown yard.
When I was planting it, the neighbor said it would take three or five years to bear fruit. I said, no rush.
Later, I returned to the city. Occasionally, I would think about it and ask my mom how the tree was doing. She said it had grown a little taller, then a little taller again. I asked if it was bearing fruit, and she said, just one year, it’s too early.
This year, when I went back, the tree was already taller than me. Its branches thick, leaves green, rustling in the wind. Still no fruit. But standing under it, it can shade half the yard from the sun.
Mom came out with tea and said, “Just wait a little longer, it should bear fruit next year.” I said, no rush.
People who plant trees know that a tree doesn’t grow in a day.
In the first year, it takes root; in the second year, it grows branches; in the third year, it blooms; in the fourth and fifth years, it bears fruit. Rushing won’t help. If you dig it up every day to check, it might not survive. Just plant it, water it, fertilize it, and do what you normally do. It will grow on its own.
When there are setbacks, it’s like planting a tree.
You plant it, and the market starts to fall. You see it getting shorter day by day, and you’re anxious to dig it up. But if you dig it up, there’s nothing left. If you don’t dig it up, it’s still in the soil, roots still growing. When spring comes, it will sprout on its own.
A friend asked me, “Are you so sure it will come back?”
I said, “Not sure. But what I am sure of is that a tree will never stop growing. A market will never stop rising. Those losses are like the roots of the tree. The deeper the roots, the higher it will grow later.” #四月行情预测