The Strength of Gentleness
There was once a kind of misunderstanding between the Sun and the Wind. The wind boates itself, “I am the mosty powerful of all natural forces. I can uproot trees. I can sweep away houses. I can even reshape the mountains by corroding them. You can only next to me in powers."
The Sun was all the time smiling. This enraged the wind further.
“Can we have a competition to prove our strength?" asked the wind.
There came an old man clutching his overcoat in the cold. The wind took its chance said, “Okay. Here is the competition. The one who is able to make this old man remove his overcoat is the most powerful of us. What do you say?"
The Sun also accepted to this competition.
The wind was forst to go. It started to blow. The old man clutched his overcoat a bit tighter. The wind blew harder. The old man clutched still harder. The enraged wind blew with a howling sound. “Ooo…Ooo…Ooo…"
The old man grumbled to himself, “What a nasty wind!" and clutched his overcoat even tighter.
Thye disappointed wind gave up and said, “The Sun….This is your turn."
The Pigeon and The Bad Crows
Once upon a time there lived a farmer. He had amassed wealth by selling the produces that he got from his farms. He distributed that wealth to all the needy people. So, the whole village revered him for his magnanimity. But he had a persistent problem in his farms. Whenever he sowed seeds in his farm, the crows would come and eat them up. He was worried about this trouble and his profit from the farms went reduced. The contemplated the problem and came to a conclusion.
“I must do something about these crows. I will be ruined if I do not stop this dangerous and destroying tendency of these crows," he thought. He consulted this problem with his friends. They gave an idea to get rid of this nagging problem.
The next day, as suggested by his friends, the farmer bought a scarecrow and placed it on the farm. The he sowed his seeds. “This season, I hope, I will get a good harvest," he said to himself softly.
When the farmer came to his farm a few days later, he saw that crows had pushed the scarecrow on to the ground. And the grains were all eaten. The farmer cried out, “I am ruined." He again took this matter to his well-wishers. They decided to adopt another idea to bring this matter to an end.
A lion once caught a mouse.
The mouse said, “Please do not eat me. Some day in the future, I will do you a favour."
The realized that there was a touch of love in the statement of the mouse.
The lion let the mouse go.
One day, the lion got caught in a hunter’s net.
The mouse came along that way.
The lion saught the help of the mouse.
Immediately, the mouse chewed the ropes and let the lion’s loose.
The Farmer and The Golden Duck
A farmer had many ducks in his house.
One of the ducks would lay a golden egg everyday.
He sold the golden egg and became rich.
One day, he thought that there would be more golden eggs in the stomach of the duck.
If he cut the stomach, he could take all the golden eggs and he would become rich in a very short period of time in stead of waiting for those eggs for many more days.
So, without any second thought, he took a knife andcut the stomach of the duck. But he found only one golden egg and felt very sad for his greedy attitude.
The Donkey and The Cotton
There once lived a salt merchant. He had a monkey for his assistance. Every morning, he would load a sack of salt on the donkey and go to the nearby town to sell it. On the way, they had to walk across a pond.
One day, while crossing the pond, the donkey thought,"Ooh! This load is so heavy that I become exhausted very soon. I wish I could get some of this load taken off my back." Just then the donkey tripped and fell into the water.
Fortunately, the donkey was not hurt. But the sack of salt on the donkey’s back fell into the water. Both the donkey and the salt became wet. Some of the salt in the sack got dissolved, making the load on the donkey lighter. The donkey felt very happy about the reduction in the weight of the sack of salt on its back. The merchant did his best to help the donkey to get up and they carried on their journey.
From that day, it became a regular practice for the donkey to slip and fall in the pond whenever they crossed the pond to the market. This would dissolve some salt in the sack thus reducing the weight and relieving the donkey of some load. The merchant was not aware of the donkey’s cunningness. This continued for a few days.
“I woke up one day and went through it as usual, when I felt the sudden urge to quit everything – my job, my relationship and my spirituality. Before that, I went to have a final talk with God and asked him if he can give me at least one reason why not to quit it all."
I continued…. “In year three there was still nothing from the bamboo seed. But, I would not quit. In year four, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed. I would not quit. Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant…But just 6 months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall. It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive. I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle."
Powerful Advice From A Dying Man
I am only 24 years old, yet I have actually already chosen my last tie. It’s the one that I will wear on my funeral a few months from now. It may not match my suit, but I think it’s perfect for the occasion.
The cancer diagnosis came too late to give me at least a tenuous hope for a long life, but I realized that the most important thing abut death is to ensure that you leave this world a little better than it was before you existed with your contributions.
The way I’ve lived my life so far, my existence or more precisely the loss of it, will not matter because I have lived without doing anything impactful you existed with your contributions.
Before, there were so many things that occupied my mind. When I learned now much time I had left, however, it became clear which things are really important So, I am writing to you for a selfish reason….I want to give meaning to my life by sharing with you what I have realized: you existed with your contributions.
Don’t waste your time on work that you don’t enjoy. It is obvious that you cannot succeed in something that you don’t like. Patience, passion and dedication come easily only when you love what you do.
Children are Wiser than Elders
Leo Tolstoy was a great writer. He was a Russian. Tolstoy was a man of peace. He wrote many good stories. Each story has a valuable moral. Some of his stories are log. And some of his stories are short. The following is one of his stories. It is written in simple English for your sake.
It was rainy season in Russia. In a certain village in Russia the rain water was flowing in streams in a street. It had rained and stopped a little while ago. Two little girls were playing in the street water. It was festival time. They were wearing new frocks. Malasha was the younger of the two little girls. Akulya was the older girl.
Malasha stamped her foot in the water. It was a little muddy. The muddy water splashed. It fell on Akulya’s new frock. Akulya was just rubbing out the mud. At that time Akulya’s mother was walking that way. She looked at her daughter’s dress. She scolded her daughter.
“How can you make your new dress so dirty?" she asked.
“Malasha splashed the water on me, mother," said Akulya.
An Apple Tree and Our Parents
Once upon a time there was a huge apple tree. A little boy used to come to play near the tree. He would search for juicy apples. He would play alongside the tree and rest under the shade. The tree was overjoyed after meeting this little bundle of joy. One day, the tree was surprised to see that boy approaching it with a sad face.
“Come on little boy! Play with me," the Tree asked the boy.
“I am no longer a kid to play around tree like you," the boy scowled at the tree. “I need toys. I need money to buy toys of various designs and sizes," the boy told the tree.
“Sorry my dear boy! I do not have money to give you. But you can pick all my apples and sell them. That will give you adequate money to buy toys of your choices," replied the tree in soothing voice.
The boy grabbed all the apples and left happily. He sold the apples and got money. He bought toys of his choices.
Spring bid adieu and autumn came by but there was no sign of the boy.
A Wise Deer and A Cowardly Tiger
There was a dense forest on the sides of a mountain. Many kinds of animals lived in the forest. A deer was eating grass and leaves with her two young ones. The young ones wandered happily here and there. The deer followed her fawns. The young ones entered a cave. The deer was frightened. It was a tiger’s cave. There were bones of dead animals all over the cave. Fortunately, the tiger was not inside the cave at the time.
The deer was trying to lead her young ones out of the cave. AT that time she heard a loud roar. She saw the tiger at a distance. The tiger was coming towards the cave. It was dangerous to go out of the cave now. She thought of a plan. The tiger had come closer to the cave. The deer raised her voice and shouted, “My deer young children do not weep. I shall capture a tiger for you to eat. You can have a good dinner."
As a child, Monty Roberts was the son of a horse trainer and moved from stable to stable, from ranch to ranch, training horses. The boy’s schooling was constantly interrupted. One day, when he was a senior, his teacher asked him to write about what he wanted to be when he grew up. He did not hesitate and wrote a seven page paper about his aim to be an owner of a horse ranch. It was a detailed paper with the location of buildings, stables and even a house plan. Two days later he received his paper back with an F on the front page.
After class he asked his teacher why he received such a low score.
The teacher told him, “This dream is unrealistic for a boy like you, who has no money, no resources and who comes from an itinerant family. There is no possibility that you will reach this goal."
