I’m going to start this post with a story that I first read in what could be my favorite book, Way of the Peaceful Warrior; a book that changed my perspective on life.
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An old man and his son worked a small farm, with only one horse to pull the plow. One day, the horse ran away.
“How Terrible,” sympathized the neighbors. “What bad luck.”
“Who knows whether it is bad luck or good luck,” the farmer replied.
A week later, the horse returned from the mountains, leading five wild mares into the barn.
“What wonderful luck!” said the neighbors.
“Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?” answered the old man.
The next day, the son, trying to tame one of the horses, fell and broke his leg.
“How Terrible. What bad luck!” “Bad luck? Good luck?”
The army came to all the farms to take the young men for war, but the farmer’s son was of no use to them, so he was spared.
“Good? Bad?”
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Last Week I had a day that reminded me of this story. After a long day working from 9am till 7:30pm I packed up my computer and other belongings into my backpack and hopped on my moped to head back to my apartment. In an effort to keep my legs strong from my biking days back in America I recently started taking the stairs up to my 12th floor apartment once a day. This night I hauled my two heavy batteries up to charge as well. I came inside only to remember that I needed to go grocery shopping to make dinner. After plopping my backpack on my bed, I grabbed my batteries and headed back down.
The air quality had been abysmal recently, which hadn’t dropped below 150ppm 2.5 in a few days. Thus hiding the blue sky in a nice haze and making it very difficult to predict the weather by checking the sky. Additionally I’d been fighting a sore throat and a cough, again from the poor air quality. Nevertheless, I put on my pollution mask and headed back out, looking forward to some fresh fruits and vegetables for dinner and pressed on.
After about 45 minutes in the store, I had loaded up my cart with produce and 2 bottles of Chinese wine, (which was awful, by the way) once again overestimating how much I can carry on my little moped. After paying for my groceries I headed outside to see that it was now pouring rain and my moped was now in a couple of inches of water. Plus I didn’t bring a coat.
Now, those of you who know me know that I will wear my shoes long into the point where they have holes in them and my right shoe was no exception in this case. Left was fine and dry though. (Score!) With some creativity, I attached all of my groceries to my bike and made it back home without incident, although soaking wet. Its not an adventure until something goes wrong!
Knowing that I wouldn’t have the energy to cook, I bought several mystery dumplings for dinner. (I really need to work on my Chinese words for food.) They were all great except for one which tasted like it was stuffed with ocean water. After watching a few episodes of the Colbert Report to keep up with my current events in America, I headed to bed. A good end to a long day.
Thinking about that day reminded me of the story above and the “bad luck” that seems to plague us some days. I wanted to share it because I had many reasons to be upset throughout the day. But even good reasons can hold us back from our potential happiness, but why should we let them? I could have cursed the world for my difficulties. I could have allowed each “problem” to make me more and more upset, culminating in a highly stressful day, but instead I let life play itself out and chose to look on the bright side.
My point in telling this story is that stress only shows itself when we resist what happens in our lives. Furthermore, we can’t know whether events in our lives will ultimately be for our highest good and learning. So when we face difficulties, we can think to ourselves: “Good? Bad? Who knows?”
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Each week at Romp N’ Roll, we have a new theme around which our classes are based. Our theme this week was “In the Jungle” which has brought back memories of some of my favorite childhood movies, hence the title of this post. I’m going to finish up for now, but I’ll have a new post in a few days to talk a little more about the subject of good and bad. Do you agree with me on this? Or is it ludicrous? Have any questions? Feel free to let me know in the comments below!
Cheers and Hakuna Matata
Josh
I have always loved your cheerful attitude even when events are challenging. You take your time to respond or even to decide whether to respond or not. I have seen you upset with every right to be upset and still handle yourself with class. You inspire us all! And you do make things an adventure! Keep ‘em comin’!
Thanks mom, I strive to live a life of principle and reason. I will most definitely have more adventures to share!
Josh…you are so amazing. You have embraced China life so well! Do you get vacations? I have some excellent places for you to see. Have you used the term `tai gui la ` yet. That could be spelled wrong. It means that’s too expensive. I think that you absolutely rock
Thanks Mary Beth! I will get 10 days of vacation for Spring Festival next year, another 7 days off for another holiday that I can’t remember, and 7 days that I can take whenever I want. I would love to hear of places to visit! I’ve said “tai gui le” a few times, haggling is always fun here haha.
The air was bad when I went back to Chengdu as well. So sad! Great to hear you are keeping it positive, Josh!
Thanks Lin, it’s the bad days that make us appreciate the good days. It’s been raining for a few days now and it has really helped the air quality!
I love this blog post. I quit my job because of an unfortunate incident that happened there. Because I knew I would no longer be able to work there I had time to make a plan with my husband about how we could get by without my income. My previous employer is now struggling to stay in business and many of my coworkers are losing there income without warning and with no back up plan. The circumstances that I left under were unfortunate but had I tried to force myself to stay I would have lost it anyways. I don’t know much about luck but I have decided to look forward instead of back because you really don’t know what you’re getting.
Well said sis. The only time you can show courage in life is in the face of fear and because of your difficulties you will become stronger for the future.