Christmas story


By Paulo Coelho / The famous Persian poet Rumi recounted that one day, in a village in the north of present-day Iran, a man appeared who told wonderful stories about a tree whose fruits granted immortality to anyone who ate it.
The news quickly reached the king's ears, but before he could ask where that natural wonder was located, the traveler had left.
However, the king was determined to become immortal, because he wanted to have enough time to transform his kingdom into an example for all the peoples of the world.
As a young man, he had dreamed of conquering poverty, teaching people justice, and providing food for every one of his subjects, but he soon realized that achieving all of this would take more than one generation. Now life was offering him an opportunity, and he was certainly not going to let it slip away.
He summoned the bravest man in his yard and entrusted him with the mission of finding the tree.
The courtier set out the next day, laden with money to obtain the necessary information, with food and everything he needed to achieve his goal. He passed through cities, plateaus and mountains, asking questions and offering rewards. Honest people assured him that such a tree did not exist, cynics showed him ironic respect and some swindler took him to distant places to get the coins. After successive disappointments, the courtier decided to give up the search. As much as he had boundless admiration for his sovereign, he would return empty-handed. He knew that, precisely for this, he would lose his honor, but he was tired and above all he was deeply convinced that the tree of immortality did not exist.
On his way back, as he climbed a small hill, he remembered that a sage lived there. And he thought: “I have lost all hope of finding what I want, but at least I can ask for his blessing and beg him to pray for my fate.”
Upon reaching him, she could not hold back her excitement and burst into tears.
"Why are you so depressed, son?" the wise man asked.
– The king asked me to find a unique tree in the world: its fruits give us eternity. I have always fulfilled his requests with honesty and courage, but this time I will have to return empty-handed.
The wise man burst out laughing and said:
– What you are seeking exists and is the water of life that comes from the infinite ocean of God. Your mistake was that you were seeking it in a form, with a specific name. Sometimes it is called “tree”, sometimes “sun”, or “cloud”. We can call it like everything else that exists on Earth. Everything in which the presence of Creation exists contains eternity within itself. Nothing can be destroyed. When our heart stops beating, our existence is transformed into the nature we see around us. We can become trees, raindrops, plants or even other human beings. Why stop at the word “tree” and forget that we are immortal? We are always reborn in our children, or in the love we show to the world, or in every act of generosity and charity we perform. Return to your king and tell him that he will not have to worry about finding the fruit of a magic tree: every attitude and every decision he makes in the present is destined to last for many generations. Ask him, therefore, to be fair to his people. If he knows how to do his job with dedication, no one will forget him and his example will certainly influence the history of the people and encourage his children and grandchildren to behave in the best way. Ah, tell him this too: whoever seeks only a name will remain forever tied to appearances and will never be able to discover either the unknown that lies within everything or the miracle of life.
In the end, he did not forget to remind them that "all the struggles we face are caused by names: property, jealousy, wealth, immortality. But when we ignore names and follow the truth behind the words, we will have everything we desire. And above all, we will achieve spiritual peace."
*Paulo Coelho is one of the most famous Brazilian writers. Every year he publishes a story on Christmas Eve. It was translated into Albanian by Erjon Uka.
Read the fairy tale of 2023: https://tiranapost.al/shenime-ne-blog/perralla-e-krishtlindjes-i530030
Read the fairy tale of 2022: https://tiranapost.al/shenime-ne-blog/perralla-e-krishtlindjes-i521358