Ant and the Grasshopper
A lazy grasshopper laughed at a little ant as she was always busy gathering food.
"Why are you working so hard?" he asked, "Come into the sunshine and listen to my merry songs."
But the ant went about her work. She said "I am storing food for the winter as the sunndy days won't last forever."
"Winter is so far away" laughed the grasshopper.
And when winter came, the ant settled down in her warm house. She had plenty of food to last the whole winter. The grasshopper had nothing to eat. He went to the ant and begged her for a little food.
"No", replied the ant, "You laughed at me when I worked.You sang through the summer. Now you can dance the winter away."
Who am I?
A young women went her mother and told her that her life was full of problems and she did not know how to deal with them. Her mother took her to the kitchen and filled three pots with water.
She placed carrots, eggs and coffee beans in the three pots and boiled them for twenty minutes. Placing them in seperate bowls, she asked her daughter to feel each of the items. The daughter did and noted that the carrot was soft, the wgg was hard from the boiling and the coffee let off a rich and soothing aroma.
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity - boiling water, but each reacted differently. The strong carrot had softened and the fragile egg had hardened. The ground coffee bean were unique - they had changed the water.
"Who are you?", she asked her daughter. "When trouble knocks on your door, how do you respond? Do you go weak like carrot or harden like egg and do you change the situatio around you like a coffee bean?"
Who are you? The carrot, egg, or the coffee bean?
It is the little things that make a big difference
There was a man taking a morning walk at on the beach. He saw that along with the morning tide came hundreds of starfish and when the tide receded, they were left behind and with the morning sun rays, they would die.
The tide was fresh and the starfish were alive. The man took a few steps, picked one and threw it into the water. He did that repeatedly. Right behind him there was another person who couldn't understand what this man was doing. He caught up with him and asked, "What are you doing? There are hundreds of starfish. How many can you help? What difference does it make?" This man did not reply, took two more steps, picked up another one, threw it into the water, and said, "It makes a difference to this one."
What difference are we making? Big or small, it does not matter. If everyone made a small difference, we'd end up with a big difference, wouldn't we?
The Power of Struggle
A man found a cocoon of a moth and took it home to watch the moth come out.
On the day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the moth for several hours as it struggled to force its little body through that little hole.
The moth seemed to be stuck and appeared to have stopped making progress. The man decided to help the moth and cut off the remaining bit of cocoon. The moth emerged easily. But its body was swollen and its wings shriveled. The man expected that the wings would enlarge and expand to support the body, which would contract in time. But the moth spent the rest of its life crawling with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It was never able to fly.
The man did not understand that the struggle required for the moth to get through the tiny opening was necessary to force fluid from the body of the moth into its wings so that it could fly upon achieving its freedom. By depriving the moth of a struggle, he deprived it of health.
Struggle can be the source of great strength and is a powerful life lesson.
The Bond of Trust
A little girl and her father were crossing a bridge. The father was scared so he aked his little daughter, "Sweetheart, please hold my hand so that you don't fall into the river."
The little girl said, "No, Dad. You hold my hand"
"What's the difference?" asked the puzzled father. "There's a big difference," replied the little girl. "If I hold your hand and something happens to me, chances are that I may let your hand go. But if you hold my hand, I know for sure that no matter what happens, you will never let my hand go."
So hold the hand of the person who loves you rather than expecting them to hold yours.
Be Deaf to Negativity
Once upon a time there was a bunch of frogs who arranged a running competition. The goal was to reach the top of a high tower.
A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants. The race began. No one in crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower. The audience shout out comments like:
"Oh, it is way too difficult!" "They will never make it to the top."
"Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!"
The frogs gave up, one by one. The crowd continued to yell:
"It is too difficult!!! No one will make it!"
More frogs got tired and gave up. But one continued higher and higher and higher. This one wouldn't give up! At the end everyone else had given up, except for the one tiny frog, he was the only one who reached the top!
A contestant asked the tiny frog how he had found the strength to succeed and reach the top. They found out that the tiny frog was deaf! Since he couldn't hear the negative comments he kept going and won the race.
