The Story of the Chinese Farmer
Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away. That evening, all of his neighbors came around to commiserate. They said, “We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away. This is most unfortunate.” The farmer said, “Maybe.” The next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and in the evening everybody came back and said, “Oh, isn’t that lucky. What a great turn of events. You now have eight horses!” The farmer again said, “Maybe.”
The following day his son tried to break one of the horses, and while riding it, he was thrown and broke his leg. The neighbors then said, “Oh dear, that’s too bad,” and the farmer responded, “Maybe.” The next day the conscription officers came around to conscript people into the army, and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg. Again all the neighbors came around and said, “Isn’t that great!” Again, he said, “Maybe.”
The whole process of nature is an integrated process of immense complexity, and it’s really impossible to tell whether anything that happens in it is good or bad — because you never know what will be the consequence of the misfortune; or, you never know what will be the consequences of good fortune.
— Alan Watts
I share the story with you as a gift as it is completely changed the way that I perceive my life. I attempt not to call things good or bad and realize that they just are or better “it is what it is..”
The greatest example of this came when I got hit by a car walking across the street. I think it’s fair to say that we all would likely label that as bad however, what I came to realize is that from the one unfortunate incident came millions of blessings, blessings that I would never have experienced or known.
Those blessings came in the form of kindness from people that I never knew and still don’t today. People that came to my rescue to help me heal which taught me resilience.
Blessings from people I knew, but more importantly, those people that showed up in my time of need.
Blessings from people that I had just met as I had just started a new job three weeks earlier, and those people showed up beyond my expectations.
While it is fair to say that I would’ve preferred not to have the experience of being hit by a car I simply would not be who I am today. The choices I made after that experience changed my life for the better or the worse matters not.
It is what it is.
Lori