In Asia they tell a parable of an order of Buddhist monks who grow a certain strain of giant bamboo.

The monks bury a cutting of the bamboo’s root. They water it. They fertilize it. They work the soil and pull weeds.

And after the first season, nothing happens.

Nothing happens the second year. Or the third or fourth year.

Finally in the fifth season, the bamboo grows 90 feet in a matter of a few weeks.

The rhetorical question becomes this: Did it take a few weeks to grow the giant bamboo, or did it take five years?

Whatever the answer, something is growing at break-neck pace right now in Butler Township. An unprecedented growth spurt is about to unfold inside Point Plaza along New Castle Road.

On Monday, the township’s board of supervisors gave Rey Azteca restaurant the go-ahead to seek a liquor license for a new location in the plaza. Reynalso Palacios, a township resident, plans to serves liquor, beer and wine with dinner at the new location. That’s wonderful news to “foodies” who prefer an ice-cold Negra Modelo with lime with their chiles relleños or a Cuba libre with their carne asada.

Meanwhile, Sharp Shopper is renovating the long-vacant Kmart building at the west end of the plaza. It’s been a slow and steady cultivation that began in April, when the Sharp Shopper chain announced its intentions.

Butler will be the ninth location for Sharp Shopper, which is headquartered in Epharata, Lancaster County.

The store has not yet set a definite opening date. Dick Stoll, vice president of Sharp Shopper Inc., said the company is aiming for mid-January. Stoll said the company is excited to show off the extensive renovations.

Here’s the best part: Both businesses are proven success stories. Sharp Shopper Inc. was founded in 1988 — 29 years ago. Rey Azteca has thrived in Butler since 2003.

Both locations will generate jobs, business, and tax revenue. Sharp Shopper conducted two days of applicant interviews during a job fair last week; and Rey Azteca will add essentially a second staff to its new restaurant while maintaining a staff at its first.

The increased activity will be a blessing to businesses that have endured many years in the plaza without an anchor tenant like Kmart. It will change and challenge everyone’s point of view about traffic and commercial activity in a traffic hub that already is one of the community’s busiest.

There are worse problems to deal with than congested, busy stores and parking lots. Growing pains are seldom fatal.

If you do get caught in a traffic jam, stop for a moment and think about something serene.

Something like growing bamboo.