Jean Giono tells of climbing in 1913 in the French Alps where, because of careless deforestation, the mountains around Provence were barren. Former villages were deserted because their springs had run dry. The wind blew furiously, unimpeded by foilage.
Giono came to a shepherd's hut, where he was invited to spend the night. After dinner, he watched the shepherd sort through a pile of acorns, discarding the caracked or undersized ones. The shepherd, Elzeard Bouffier, counted out 100 perfect acorns then went to bed. Giono learned that over the last three-plus years he'd planted 100,000 trees on the wild hillsides, 20,000 of which had sprouted. Of those, he expected half to be eaten by rodents or die due to the elements, and the other half to live.
After World War I Giono returned to the mountainside and discovered a young forest. He returned once more after World War II. Twenty miles from the front lines of war, the shepherd had continued his work, ignoring this war as he had the former one. "On the site of the ruins I had seen in 1913," Giono wrote, "now stand neat farms. The old streams, fed by the snows that the forest conserves, are flowing again. Little by little, the villages have been rebuilt" - thanks to one resolute shepherd.
Thought for the blog:
"So don't get tired of doing what is good... for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time."
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