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by laotzu
3841 days ago
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This reminds me of an old zen tale: >There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically. “Maybe,” the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed. “May be,” replied the old man. The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. “Maybe,” answered the farmer. The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. “Maybe,” said the farmer. The point being that when you become so upset with being turned down for a certain job you are setting yourself up to be let down by missing the big picture. The reality of the big picture is you have no idea how something that might seem like a great success might lead to great failure, or great failure might lead to great success. |
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My example, out of few - breaking up with my longterm girlfriend (5 years, 6 months spent backpacking together in himalaya) seemed like a proper disaster. Few years rewind - I have the most amazing person imaginable beside me, to which I proposed (and she said yes) on top of Mont Blanc this May, after hard ski tour. Without prior hard breakup, and messing around a bit, I wouldn't be able to appreciate current one so much
(or another summary - looks is by far not enough for happy long term relationship, compatibility on many levels is necessary. but until you meet somebody with whom you "click" on almost all imaginable aspects, you don't even know how good such a state is, and how much peace it can bring to life)