You may be familiar with the following story:
Once upon a time a farmer eked out a living from the land
with the aid of his son and their big strong horse. One day the horse ran away.
‘Oh dear’ said friends and neighbours ‘What a disaster!’ ‘Maybe so, maybe so,’
said the farmer. The horse returned, bringing with him a mate, which the farmer
also set to work on the land. ‘What good luck!’ exclaimed the neighbours. ‘Maybe
so, maybe so’, said the farmer. Then the son, trying to ride the new horse,
fell off and broke his arm. ‘Oh dear’ said friends and neighbours ‘What a
disaster!’ ‘Maybe so, maybe so’ said the farmer. The army came by, press
ganging new recruits, but wouldn’t take the farmer’s son because of his broken
arm….. and so on and so forth.
I tell this story now, because here in the Davis - Birkett
household we’ve been having a similar set of up-down-up experiences, and this
story reminds me not to get too down about anything, because you never know
what’s around the corner. However, the story suggests that you should never get
too ‘up’ about anything either, for the same reason.
Rudyard Kipling suggested
that you’re mature only when you can look disaster and triumph in the face and ‘treat those two imposters just the same’ and Buddhists would talk about the supreme importance
of non- attachment. Attachment is what keeps us re-incarnating in this painful world.
But do I really have to give up feeling joyful about certain
occurrences, in order not to get down about others? True, if I were less
attached to my husband or son I probably wouldn’t get as upset as I would now
if anything were to happen to either of them, but people who won’t commit to
relationships or allow their children close for that reason are usually
considered damaged!
Perhaps I need to practise feeling joyful without getting to attached to that feeling...
I would like to know what others think. As this site seems to
have trouble accepting and publishing people’s comments, you can always email
me at helenjdavis1955@gmail.com,
and I’ll put it on this blog.
