Brazilian didn't go to the church and religious people feared for his soul and wondered, "He does not know that going to the church is to be right with God? Who is not right with God is in danger, God punishes!"
Brazilian used to smile a gentle smile and ask: "Where is told in the Scripture that God has a church? Almighty, had churches to be done he would have created those since the beginning. Almighty, He created what He wanted. And what did He do? He planted a garden. It is said that "He walked through the garden to cool wind in the afternoon!" When I'm in the garden I know I'm walking in the place that God loves. God loves life, wind, sun, earth, water - things that are in the garden. But the churches are indoors, muffled. Animals and plants do not feel happy inside ... "
He did not attend church but he loved a saint: St Francis; because he was the man who saw God in the things of nature. St. Francis loved all things that lived, and according to legend, the living things understood him, he used to preached sermons to fish and birds. Often the animals hear better than humans ...
Then Brazilian decided to plant a garden in honor of St Francis. It would be a wonderful garden with a bed of roses in the middle. And so he did. Some time later he was gazing the lush leaves of roses, the rose that first opened and the buttons that would open in the next day, Brazilian went to bed happy.
Upon waking thought the garden he wanted to see if the buttons were already open. But disappointment! What he found was devastation. At night, the leafcutter ants had cut all the leaves and flowers of all roses. Brazilian was very sad. He decided to seek for advice from a neighbor who had a beautiful bed of roses bloom.
"The way is to kill the ants," said the neighbor. "Ants and gardens do not mix. For ant gardens are vegetables gardens, things to be eaten."
"Kill the ants? No way. They are creatures of God, as all of us. Once it was God who made them, they have the right to live. Ants have rights ..." And with these words he left the neighbor talking to himself. "Why would I ever kill the ants? They are creatures of God. There must be another way ..."
He thought: "If the ants ate the roses, they ate because they were hungry. It was not out of malice. If I give food to the ants they will no longer be hungry and will not eat the roses."
Then he planted, around the rose garden, a ring of tender and sweet carrots that would be the delight of eating ants. But the ants ignored the carrots. They continued to eat the roses.
"Maybe they did not understand," he thought. "They do not even realize that carrots are delicious and they are meant for them. they haven't been educated yet. If they are educated for more refined tastes they will not eat the roses. I will be an educator of ants."
And as he knew that over night was the preferred time to cut roses by the ants, Brazilian began teaching the ants during the night, steadily, in his garden. He wished the ants learned how to like carrots gastronomically and started admiring the roses.
The neighbor was upset by the talk that night. He went to see what it was. And was astonished. "Brazilian, are you nuts? Preaching to the ants?" Brazilian replied: "St. Francis used to preaching to birds and fish. And they understood. That's why I will preach to the ants and they will understand." But the ants did not care for the Brazilian's classes. Not had a new lesson been learned. Ant fest remained as they continued to cut the rose bushes.
The Brazilian failure reminded him of a feature invented by humans called "condominium". What is a condominium? These houses are surrounded by walls on all sides, in order to prevent entry of criminals, who remain outside. "I will do the same with my roses," he said triumphantly. Immediately thereafter took liter coke bottles, nipples and cut back, made a vertical cut along these hollow cylinders and used as protective linings for the stems of roses. "Now my rose bushes are protected! The ants will not enter!" Poor Brasilino! He did not know the cunning of the ants.They can make tunnels, climb walls, go through gaps, build bridges. And when he went to the garden in the morning, he saw that the ants had devoured their new rose bushes.
Brazilian then remembered an old story that reports the achievement of a flutist who has delivered a city of a plague of rats. What has made the flutist? Just played his flute! "Oh! Music has magical powers! Of course, ants do not understand the language of pedagogical arguments. There will be susceptible to the magic of music." He bought a flute and began to play Ravel's Bolero. Ants responded immediately. They felt the power of music.Even the animals have music in their soul. They began to chew leaves and roses upon the music rhythm.
With the failure of the music, came to him, then a new idea: "If the ants can not be made aware of the words and music, roses can be. So I will wake up my roses to the sense of non-violence, the beauty of peace. Our thought has power. If all the roses together make a chain of peace thoughts, positive energy in the air will be so strong that the ants will be gone ... "
He spreaded through, the garden, colorful images of peace and smiling flowers; he put some music on CDs along with the roses, Strauss,Vandré, Caymmi... Everything placed in the garden space, suggested peace and non-violence.People who visited the garden felt the positive energy in the air. But it seemed that the ants were not sensitive to the positive energy of peace, once they continued to cut the roses.
Then he began to get angry at the roses. "I do not understand the passivity of the roses! They do not fight! they must defend themselves! Hasn't God endowed the creatures with the right to defend their lives?"
Then he covered the branches of the bushes with thorns and sharp pointy knives and swords in order to the roses use them to defend themselves against the ants. But the roses did not know how to defend themselves. They did not know weapons. They were meek and clumsy by nature.The ants continued to rise for their branches without connecting to the thorns.
In desperation, Brazilian decided to take a more radical attitude, even contradicted to his feelings of reverence for life, he went into the garden armed with a hammer and began pounding ants approaching their rosebushes. But the number of ants was immense,never stopping coming. He killed many ants with a hammer.There was also the fact that Brazilian's ants could not get hammered all the time as he needed some sleep. By sleeping, the hammer stopped but the ants work went on.
"I know!" He said. "I will appeal to the Pope. The Pope prays hard. I will ask him to pray for the ants to stop eating my roses." He then wrote a letter to the Pope, exposing his suffering, and asking him to intercede with the saints, by the virgin, with God ... After all, the heavenly host should have a special interest in preserving the garden, taste of Paradise.
The ecclesiastical authorities, in possession of the Brazilian' letter , gave him the greatest consideration, and placed in the list of prayers for peace prayed daily by the Pope: peace between Jews and Palestinians, between Russian and Chechen, peace between Protestants and Catholics, peace in Colombia, Peru, in Africa, in Spain ... It was a huge list. The Pope prayed but nothing changed. The men continued to kill and the ants continued to cut his roses.
Suddenly he heard a voice calling him. It was the voice of his neighbor, who watched in silence. "I have a solution to your problem with ants, without you having to kill the ants."
Brazilian was astonished: "How?"
The neighbor explained: "Do you think the ants are creatures of God. As God's creatures are entitled to live. You're in good spiritual company. Men like St. Francis, Gandhi and Schweitzer also felt reverence for life." Brazilian was happy to find himself placed alongside these saints.
Your neighbor continued: "But what you say to the ants must apply to all creatures. Right?" "Right," agreed Brazilian.
"So why do not you bring an anteater to live in your garden? Anteaters are also creatures of God. And love to eat ants! Its tongue is thin and long, which goes to the bottom of the chills! So the anteater eating ant is not a sin, but a virtue! "
And that's how Brazilian, without breaching his spiritual convictions, brought an anteater to live in his garden.
And coming the anteater, the ants were gone, the garden flourished and Brazilian smiled ...
Moral of the story: Who wants to get rid of ants and keep a clear conscience must buy an anteater ...
By Rubens Alves (http://www.releituras.com/rubemalves_rosas.asp)
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