I realized I was holding an apple tree in the palm of my hand. A little seed with the potential to become a beautiful big tree—a tree that could grow thousands of apples in its lifetime. Thousands of apples， each containing several seeds， each capable of growing a new tree which again could produce thousands of apples. Why then the world wasnt filled with apple trees？

It is a rule of nature that only a few of these seeds grow. Most never do or are destroyed early on in their growth.

And it came to my mind that its quite often so with peoples dreams also. Wonderful ideas come to our minds but they die too soon—we dont tend to the little saplings； we dont protect them as we should. And then one day we wonder what happened to our dreams—why did they never come true？

I put the apple seed on the table， and bent down to see this natures tiny wonder. I wondered when someone was seriously growing apples， how many times they had to try to get a seed to germinate？ How much work did it require？

Maybe it was like with our dreams： the seeds of your dreams did not automatically grow. Planting an apple tree， it might take many tries. You might meet dozens of people until you met the true friend.

But if you kept on sowing the seeds of your dream， one day you would succeed. And after that others would comment you were lucky to be successful—when in fact you probably failed more often than you would like to count. But you were good at failing—you learned， you adapted， and then with your new knowledge you tried again and again. And one day success was yours.

I picked up the apple seed again—but instead of throwing it away I took an empty flower pot， poured some earth into it and planted the seed. Maybe one day it would grow into a proud tree. Id never know if I didnt try.

我意識(shí)到被我捧在手心的是棵蘋果樹。這粒小小的種子蘊(yùn)藏著長(zhǎng)成一棵美麗的大樹的潛力——這棵大樹在它的生命中又會(huì)結(jié)出成千上萬(wàn)個(gè)蘋果。每個(gè)蘋果里又有幾粒種子，每粒種子又可以長(zhǎng)成一棵新的蘋果樹，再結(jié)出成千上萬(wàn)個(gè)蘋果。但是為什么世界上并沒(méi)有到處都是蘋果樹呢？

因?yàn)樵谧匀灰?guī)律的作用下，只有一些種子能生長(zhǎng)起來(lái)。大部分種子根本不能生長(zhǎng)，即便生長(zhǎng)起來(lái)也會(huì)夭折。

這讓我聯(lián)想到人們的夢(mèng)想又何嘗不是如此。我們常常有不錯(cuò)的想法，但這些想法只是曇花一現(xiàn)——我們沒(méi)有照料這些“幼苗”，我們應(yīng)該保護(hù)它們，但我們沒(méi)有做到。然后有一天，我們感到很納悶，我們的夢(mèng)想為何從未實(shí)現(xiàn)？

我把這粒蘋果籽放在桌上，彎下腰觀察這個(gè)小小的大自然的杰作。我想，如果有人一心想種蘋果的話，他要嘗試多少次才能讓種子發(fā)芽？他需要付出多少努力？

或許這就像我們的夢(mèng)想：夢(mèng)想的種子不會(huì)自己生長(zhǎng)。種一棵蘋果樹需要付出許多辛勞。遇見一個(gè)知己需要在茫茫人海中尋尋覓覓。

但如果你堅(jiān)持不懈地播種夢(mèng)想的種子，總有一天你會(huì)成功。之后，人們會(huì)說(shuō)你之所以成功是因?yàn)榈玫缴咸斓木祛櫋獠恢赡苓B你自己也不知道你成功之前經(jīng)歷過(guò)多少次失敗。但是失敗對(duì)你來(lái)說(shuō)并非壞事——你會(huì)適應(yīng)失敗，并從中吸取經(jīng)驗(yàn)教訓(xùn)，然后運(yùn)用這些經(jīng)驗(yàn)和教訓(xùn)反復(fù)地嘗試?？傆幸惶炷銜?huì)成功。

我再次拿起這粒蘋果籽——這次我并未將它扔掉，而是找來(lái)一個(gè)空花盆，倒了些泥土進(jìn)去，把這粒種子種在泥土里面?；蛟S有一天它會(huì)長(zhǎng)成一棵自豪的蘋果樹，只有試過(guò)才知道。

potential /p?'ten?l/ n. 潛力，可能性

The company certainly has the potential for growth.

capable /'ke?p?bl/ adj. 有能力的

The kitchen is capable of catering for several hundred people.

tend /tend/ v. 照顧，照料

Her mother was ill and she had to tend to her.

germinate /'d???m?ne?t/ v. 發(fā)芽，萌芽

comment /'k?ment/ v. 評(píng)論