Beautiful Sunday: time for planting some fruit saplings and reflection.

over 1 year ago

After several days of rainy weather, the earth has become nice and soft for digging and planting small friut saplings. It was so nice to see blue sky and bright sunshine after days of grey outlook. I had been accumulating almost twenty fruit saplings during the last three months. I bought them as very tiny saplings at very cheap prices. This meant that we had to let them grow stronger roots for about eight weeks. So, they would be able to thrive after we planted them in the soil.

I paced myself and these plants by planting those with lots of roots and new leaves fitst. They have been left to put on new heights and more young branches with fresh green leaves. We would normally plant about six to ten saplings in late afternoon. Luciky, it’s rainy season so we wouldn’t lose any saplings because of drought. I had estimated that about ten small trees were lost due to extreme heat and drought last season. That’s why I would only buy small saplings at cheap prices; it would be quite painful to see a big tall plants roasted dried in hot weather.

There’s a strange satisfaction and contentment when walking around the green fields dotted by our young trees. Those young trees did very well in surviving the extreme weather conditions during the last few years. The heat has become like microwave frequencies which could easily burn one’s face in twenty minutes. I always wondered how the leaves of young plant could cope with searing hot frequencies. I often saluted my plants and trees in the evening during my walking meditation. These trees were true heroes for me!

My gardener couldn’t understand why I kept on planting hard wood trees and various kinds of fruit trees. I had to explain to her that money would become useless one day, so we might have to sell some hard wood trees in exchange for rice and other food supplies. We might have to depend entirely on our fruit trees for survival and for exchanging for other items with local villagers. There’s just so much uncertainty and strong probability of chaos in our society in the near future.

Slowly, my gardener started to think I could be right in my prediction of the future. She had seen news on unrests in many countries and the fightings in Eastern European country. There is more frequent news about natural disasters around the globe, earthquakes seemed to occur more often. I had warned her about earthquakes in Thailand and our neighbouring countries. Last week, there were three earthquakes in and around our country. I told her to expect earthquakes in China some time in the future. This would certainly affect some dams and would be quite dangerous.

That’s why I preferred to buy saplings which were grown from seeds. These trees would have very deep long roots which would help them to survive flooding and gale force wind. Some villagers began to think along my of line of thoughts and said I could foresee the future. It would have been impossible to buy any land at reasonable prices during the last five years. Fortunately, my guardian angels and my guides had led me to this place ten years ago. Destiny had changed my way of life completely and unexpectedly.

Most of my friends and families’ members are still trapped in their old and traditional ways of lifestyles. They are so used to materialistic comfort and security that they thought things wouldn’t change drastically. Some of my friends and relatives bursted out laughing when I warned them about the impact of a nuclear war. They couldn’t believe that our financial system could collapse again. So, I did all that I could to make some people being aware of unexpected turns of events. They would certainly think about me when the day of reckoning had arrived.

In fact, I did warn these people to sell all their shares in the stock market, to withdraw all their special deposit packages and to buy dollars for their import business. It was disclosed to me by an elderly relative that they had a discussion about my warnings and instructions. They decided that I wasn’t qualified for expressing these opinions as I didn’t have an MBA from American university as they did. But they had no idea about my educational background and my reading habits. A billionaire offered me a highly paid part-time job as his consultant after we had twenty minutes discussion about his import-export business. I thought he was kidding so I declined the offer; besides I was too lazy to work hard in those days.

Six months later, the financial collapse arrived in Thailand. About forty family run banks and private financial institutions were closed. People couldn’t withdraw their money. The credit system came to a halt which led to lots of bankruptcies and many suicides. Unemployment was in bad situation as factories and companies had to close down. Many people lost their houses, cars, all their money and their marriages. I was so lucky to have taken a low paid job as a civil servant, so I escaped the financial onslaught.

I wouldn’t recommend anyone sending their children to study Master in Business Administration. There were four MBA graduates around the boardroom that day when they decided I was unqualified. They all lost millions in the stock market and suffered badly in their businesses. The elderly relative also lost a few million in the stock market and she couldn’t get her deposit from the failed bank for five years! The government or taxpayers had to foot the bills. Now, bail-in is in the law so next time it would be really horrendous and bloody. I also saved my next door neighbour from investing in a business venture a year earlier; he thanked me profusely for saving him ten million bahts.

But the really big blow to me was my inability to stop an old relative from investing in a condominium project. I could foresee the outcome two years ahead of the real estate collapse in Bangkok. That was the tail end of the boom in real estate market; many people were afraid of missing out and greed became too big to be controlled. I couldn’t believe how some people were optimistically calculating the figures of such real estate projects; they would calculate all the expenses and potential profits. These figures made them so drunk with the prospect of becoming a billionaire. My relative even promised to buy me an expensive car!

The stock market was making new highs each week; the prices of new houses and condos were going up as people invested in these property projects. They couldn’t see the warnjng signs of over heating in the market. Everyone wanted to become rich and successful. The government was fueling the madness in real estate projects. I pleaded with the old man to stop putting money into his project and to wait for one more year. But he insisted that he knew what he was doing and I shouldn’t be concerned as he was going to become a billionaire. I knew how much money he could make by selling all his shares in the stock market. I even calculated the amount of cash he could make at that time. I also explained to him how to invest safely with that amount of cash so he could possibly become a billionaire in five years.

But he wouldn’t listen to my warnings and request. I had to walk out of his house with tears in my eyes as I already saw how it would end. I didn’t know how to save him; I didn’t want him to commit suicide one day. So, I caught his son at his company and asked him to stop his father from wasting millions on a bad project. He looked down upon me as I was a poor relative. How could a poor person like me know anything about investment and finance?! I did warn him that when his father’s in trouble (bankrupt), he would be affected and be financially supportive of his father. He was slight angry and irritated with my bravado and told me to leave.

My eyes were moist again as the pain and future suffering hit me quite hard. It’s like I couldn’t stop people from being hit by cars. I went crazy for a few days: being very frustrated and hurt at the same time. A few years later, things turned out as I had predicted. It was a very sad story with sad ending. I had witnessed a previously successful businessman with confidence became bankrupt and suffered from depression. There were things I didn’t want to remember or recall. I was upset for not being able to avert the calamity.

So, having seen extreme ups and downs, I turned towards more spiritual way of life. Old college friends invited me to join their political parties. I had several offers from businessmen, friends and my own connections for lucrative jobs. But I had to decline as these jobs would increase my greed and desire to be very wealthy. The temptations were almost too hard to handle. I had to walk the Buddhist teaching path of self-reliance and self-sufficiency. Having a pale glimpse of the future, I knew I had to let go of so many familiar things and my comfort zone.

We got some new and very cheap orchids.

Planting trees and doing gardenjng seemed to have kept me sane and grounded. My mental health has become much healthier with less anxiety about other people’s lives, being somewhat psychic could be quite a burden as one has to learn not to interfere in other people’s lives and karmic consequences. Being in this situation, I could only have very simple lifestyle with down to earth approach to survival.

Many of my expensive shoes, clothes and other items had been donated to charity and several workers. Boxes of books were given away to other people. But I still have a pile of old books and some antique items to exchange into some cash, gold or crypto. Life is moving along slowly though time is telling me to hurry up and make haste. At least I have done all the tree planting projects; the next one would be the water project. I pray for all the strength, support and mindfulness in following my destiny.