There is a story I keep coming back to. I read it during a hard season in my business, and it stuck with me.
Hundreds of birds lived on a giant tree in a meadow. They had lived there for generations. Sparrows, robins, finches and doves. The tree gave them shade and safety. It was home.
Then a severe drought came. The rivers dried up. The grass turned brown. The tree grew weak and lost its leaves and branches.
The birds began to leave. One by one, they flew off to find healthier trees. In the end, only one small brown bird was left.
The other animals did not understand. They asked him, "Why do you stay? This tree cannot help you anymore."
He said the tree had protected him from storms and from predators. It had given him a home when he had nowhere else to go. He could not leave it just because it was struggling.
Months later, the rain came. The rivers filled. The grass returned. The tree grew new leaves and new branches.
The other birds came back. They asked him why he never left.
He said, "I didn't stay because of what the tree could still give me. I stayed because I remembered what it had already given."
When I got to that line, I had to stop reading for a while.
My own drought
I know that tree. I have been that tree.
When things were going well in my business, there was no shortage of people around me. They were friendly. They were close. They had time for me. I thought that was what friendship looked like.
Then things got hard. I had less to offer. No wins to share. Nothing that could help anyone.
And slowly, the people went quiet. Nobody made a scene. There was no fight. Messages took longer to get answered. Then they stopped coming. One by one, they were gone, just like the birds.
I will be honest. It made me angry. Some of these were people I had counted as allies. I had trusted them. And I learned they were never there for me. They were there for what I could give.
For a while, I carried that. I asked myself how I could have missed it. It is a bitter thing to feel used by people you believed in.
The ones who stayed
But that is not the whole story. Some people stayed.
They did not have much reason to. I could not pay them back. I could not promise them anything. They just stayed, and they trusted me. That was all. And it was enough to get me through some very long days.
I think about them often now. They are my small brown birds. I did not know how much they meant to me until the leaves were gone.
That is when I understood something. Loyalty is not proven when life is good. Anyone can be loyal when it costs nothing. It is proven in the dry season, when staying gives you nothing at all.
What the anger taught me
I have stopped being angry at the birds that flew away. It took time. Most of them were just doing what comes naturally. They went where it was easy. That was never about me. It only showed me who they were.
Holding on to the bitterness would have cost me more. It would have taken my energy, my focus and my peace. And I need all of those to keep building.
So I let it go, little by little. I am not saying I forgot. I remember. But I am more careful now about who I trust, and I am more thankful for the ones who earned it.
I also ask myself a harder question these days. Would I be the small brown bird for someone else? Would I stay when a friend has nothing left to give me? I want the honest answer to be yes. I am still working on it.
The rain comes back
My tree is still growing. Some days the branches feel thin. But the rivers are not as dry as they were, and I believe the rain keeps coming for those who do not give up.
If you are in your own dry season, I hope you have at least one small brown bird beside you. They are worth more than a whole crowd.
Tuloy lang ang laban.
Who stayed with you when you had nothing left to give?
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