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A farmer lived with his son raising horses and vegetables in
the days of ancient China. One day the son
broke his leg.
The townspeople expressed their sadness by saying "You must
be very distressed about
your son's leg, for now you must
work the farm alone."
The farmer replied, "Maybe, maybe not."
As
the son's leg was healing, the Emperor declared war and
drafted all the young men for battle, but the farmer's son
was
rejected because of his broken leg.
The townspeople heard about this and said to the farmer,
"You must
be very happy about your son's condition for it
saved him from going to war!"
The farmer replied, "Maybe,
maybe not."
As the son limped around the farm doing his chores, he
accidentally left the gate open one night and
all 100
horses ran away.
The next day, townspeople came out and said to
the farmer, "It is so sad
that you lost all your livestock.
Now you will make very little money."
The farmer replied
"Maybe, maybe not."
News came to the farmer that the war was over and the
Emperor decided to hold a lottery and
redistribute all
the livestock.
The farmer drew the long straw and received 500 head of
horses. The
town's people rallied around him and said,
"You must be very happy now that you have prospered so
richly!"
...and
what did the farmer say?
The farmer knows something that few people will ever
understand. Events themselves
have no meaning except
the meaning you give them.
The Chinese farmer decided that he would not let
his
emotions carry him high or low.
He simply controlled what he could, stayed calm and let
events
take their course.
He did not let events control him because he knew a
secret: Events have no meaning
until they are "inside you".
With this idea in mind, hopefully you will be a little more
reluctant to label any
event that takes place as being good
or bad.
Approach events as the Chinese farmer does: "Maybe, maybe
not."
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