Orientation Towards Life

there is an old chinese story that is meant to explains life in a most beautiful and simplistic way and as I am struggling finish up this month I am finding myself constantly thinking of it to keep my focus. Thus I would like to share it for perhaps it may bring some solace to you as it has to me.

The story goes as such: There is an old farmer who’s old horse ran away. Knowing that the horse was the mainstay of his livelihood, his neighbors came to commiserate with him. “Who knows wat’s bad or good?” said the old man, refusing their sympathy. And indeed, a few days later his horse returned, brining with it a wild horse. The old man’s friends came to congratulate him. Rejecting their congratulations, the old man said “who knows what’s bad or good?” And, as it happened, a few days later when the old man’s son was attempting to ride the wild horse, he was thrown from it and his leg was broken. The friends came to express their sadness about the son’s misfortune. “Who knows what’s bad or good?” said the old man. A few weeks passed, and the army came to the village to conscript all the able-bodied men to fight a war against the neighboring province, but the old man’s son was not fit to serve and was spared.

This story goes on as long as a person patience permits. The fundamentals of this story expresses that the world is constantly changing and full of contradictions, that there exist in a event a positive and a negative. So next time there is a moment that seems to be breaking you or brining you bliss remember the old man and his wisdom and perhaps life will seem a little more manageable and the chaos will seem a little more predictable.

Best Wishes

A

Advertisement