@stories

Learning from Others

Let there be disorder!

A man offered to pay a sum of money to his twelve-year-old daughter if she mowed the lawn. The girl went at the task with great zest and by evening the whole lawn had been beautifully mowed – well, everything except a large uncut patch of grass in one corner!

When the man said he couldn’t pay the sum agreed upon because the whole lawn hadn’t been mowed, the girl said she was ready to forego the money, but would not cut the grass in the patch!

Curious to find out why, he checked the uncut patch. There, right in the centre of the patch, sat a large toad. The girl had been too tender-hearted to run over it with the lawn-mower.

Where there is love, there is disorder.

Perfect order would make the world a graveyard!

~ (Anthony de Mello)

Bring out that tiger!

A man walking through the forest saw a fox that had lost its legs and wondered how it lived! Then he saw a tiger come with game in its mouth. The tiger had his fill and left the rest for the fox.

The next day too God sent the tiger to feed the fox. The man began to wonder at God’s greatness and thought, “I too shall lie in a corner trusting the Lord to give me all I need.”

He did this for a month, and was almost at death’s door when he heard a Voice that said, “O you, who are on the path of error, open your eyes to the Truth! Imitate the tiger not the fox!”

For some of us, it might be the right time to take an oath to bring out that tiger within us, at least – this new year 2011!

~

Don’t change, Repurpose!

I was neurotic for years. Anxious, depressed, selfish. And everyone kept telling me to change.

And I resented them, and agreed with them, and wanted to change, but simply couldn’t, no matter how I tried.

What hurt the most was that, like the others, my closest friend kept urging me to change. So I felt powerless and trapped.

One day he said “Don’t change. I love you as you are.”

Those words were music to my ears: “Don’t change. Don’t change. Don’t change. I love you as you are.”

I relaxed. I came alive. And, suddenly, I changed!

Now I know that I couldn’t really change till I found someone to love me whether I changed or not!

Is this how you love me, god?

(~ Anthony De Mello)

Sphinx_ligustri_1[3]

Natural transformation like that of a caterpillar is sustainable. Everything else is just yet another attempt to please someone!

If we can’t change naturally, it might be worth repurposing – finding new meanings, application or value for what we are/have, right?

Repurposing is sustainable!

~