The Eagle and the Jackdaw

AN EAGLE, flying down from his perch on a lofty rock, seized upon

a lamb and carried him aloft in his talons.  A Jackdaw, who

witnessed the capture of the lamb, was stirred with envy and

determined to emulate the strength and flight of the Eagle.  

He flew around with a great whir of his wings and settled upon a

large ram, with the intention of carrying him off, but his claws

became entangled in the ram's fleece and he was not able to

release himself, although he fluttered with his feathers as much

as he could.  

The shepherd, seeing what had happened, ran up and

caught him.  He at once clipped the Jackdaw's wings, and taking

him home at night, gave him to his children.  On their saying,

"Father, what kind of bird is it?'  he replied, "To my certain

knowledge he is a Daw; but he would like you to think an Eagle."

Aesops Fables

Surprise test

One day, a professor entered his classroom and asked his students to prepare for a surprise test. They all waited anxiously at their desks for the exam to begin.
The professor handed out the exams with the text facing down, as usual. Once he handed them all out, he asked the students to turn over the papers.

To everyone’s surprise, there were no questions–just a black dot in the center of the paper. The professor, seeing the expression on everyone’s faces, told them the following: “I want you to write about what you see there.” The students, confused, got started on the inexplicable task.
At the end of the class, the professor took all the exams, and started reading each one of them out loud in front of all the students.

All of them, with no exception, defined the black dot, trying to explain its position in the center of the sheet. After all had been read, the classroom silent, the professor started to explain:
“I’m not going to grade you on this, I just wanted to give you something to think about. No one wrote about the white part of the paper. Everyone focused on the black dot – and the same thing happens in our lives. However, we insist on focusing only on the black dot – the health issues that bother us, the lack of money, the complicated relationship with a family member, the disappointment with a friend. The dark spots are very small when compared to everything we have in our lives, but they are the ones that pollute our minds. Take your the eyes away from the black dots in your lives. Enjoy each one of your blessings, each moment that life gives you. Be happy and live a life filled with love!”

Unknown

There was a young woman who took great pride in the growth and care of the flowers in her flower garden. She had been raised by her grandmother who taught her to love and care for flowers as she herself had done. So, like her grandmother, her flower garden was second to none.
One day while looking through a flower catalogue she often ordered from, a picture of a plant immediately caught her eye. She had never seen blooms on a flower like that before. “I have to have it,” she said to herself, and she immediately ordered it.
When it arrived, she already had a place prepared to plant it. She planted it at the base of a stone wall at the back of her yard. It grew vigorously, with beautiful green leaves all over it, but there were no blooms. Day after day she continued to cultivate it, water it, feed it, and she even talked to it attempting to coax it to bloom. But, it was to no avail.

One morning weeks later, as she stood before the vine, she contemplated how disappointed she was that her plant had not bloomed. She was giving considerable thought to cutting it down and planting something else in its place.
It was at this point that her invalid neighbor, whose lot joined hers, called over to her. “Thank you so much! You can’t imagine how much I have enjoyed the blooms of that vine you planted.” The young woman walked through the gate into her neighbor’s yard, and sure enough, she saw that on the other side of the wall the vine was filled with blooms.
There were indeed the most beautiful blooms she had ever seen. The vine had crept through the crevices and it had not flowered on her side of the fence, it had flowered luxuriantly on the other side.
Just because you cannot see the good result of your labour does not mean that it bore no fruit.

Author: Randy Reynolds

One day, dull and exhausted by the illnesses and burdens of life, a peasant came to a wise man. He sat in front of the wise man, who gave him a heartfelt and warm smile. The peasant breathed out heavily letting out a wave of mourning. He began complaining about his life, about his burdens, about not seeing bright daylight at all. He complained that problems seemed to come one after the other – they had twisted him between the grindstones so much that he couldn’t even breathe in some fresh air. Later, he began blaming all of his relatives, who, in his opinion, were guilty for his misfortunes, whether the circumstances didn’t turn out right for him, or something else.

The wise man listened to him in silence, and when the peasant once again contritely inquired of the wise man, why is it so unfair, what he should do and how to find peace, the wise man got up from his seat and invited the peasant to follow him.

They came out of the hut and went to a lakeside, which was not far away and where from time to time flying fish jumped, flashing quickly above the surface, catching food.

The wise man led the peasant to the lakeside and said to him:

“Do you see the smoothness of the lake? It’s depths are filled with life. There are fish that always stay in water, and if suddenly the lake got polluted, they couldn’t see further their own nose, they would hardly recognize where the source of the pollution was, and they would keep swimming in circles. Then there are also fish that have wings and can rise above the water of the lake, looking at it from the heights of their flight. So this is my advice: instead of complaining about your life, come to this lakeside from time to time, watch the flying fish and try to understand what I wanted to say to you.”

Author Unknown

One day a small gap appeared in the cocoon, through which the butterfly had to appear. A boy, who accidentally passed by, stopped and watched how the butterfly was trying to get out of the cocoon. It took a lot of time, the butterfly was trying very hard, and the gap was as little as before. It seemed that the power would leave the butterfly soon.
The boy decided to help the butterfly. He took a penknife and cut the cocoon. The butterfly immediately got out, but its body was weak and feeble, and the wings were barely moving.
The boy continued to watch the butterfly, thinking that now its wings would spread and its would fly. However, that did not happen.

For the rest of its life the butterfly had to drag its weak body and wings that weren’t spread. It was unable to fly, because the boy did not realize that an effort to enter through the narrow gap of the cocoon was necessary for the butterfly, so that the life-giving fluid would move from the body to the butterfly’s wings and that the butterfly could fly. Life forced the butterfly to leave its shell with diffuculty, so that it would become stronger and would be able to grow and develop.

If we were allowed to live without meeting difficulties, we would not be viable. Life gives us challenges to make us stronger.

Author Unknown