When Adversity Knocks

This is a story that explains how adversity is met differently by different people.
There was a girl named Asha who lived with her mother and father in a village. One
day, her father assigned her a simple task. He took three vessels filled with boiling
water. He placed an egg in one vessel, a potato in the second vessel, and some tea
leaves in the third vessel. He asked Asha to keep an eye on the vessels for about ten
to fifteen minutes while the three ingredients in three separate vessels boiled. After
the said time, he asked Asha to peel the potato and egg, and strain the tea leaves.
Asha was left puzzled – she understood her father was trying to explain her
something, but she didn’t know what it was.

Her father explained, “All three items were put in the same circumstances. See
how they’ve responded differently.” He said that the potato turned soft, the egg
turned hard, and the tea leaves changed the colour and taste of the water. He further
said, “We are all like one of these items. When adversity calls, we respond exactly the
way they do. Now, are you a potato, an egg, or tea leaves?”

Moral of the Story

We can choose how to respond to a difficult situation.

The Wise Old Owl

The moral
Be more observant. Talk less and listen more. This will make us
wise.
There was an old owl who lived in an oak tree. Every day, he observed
incidents that occurred around him.

Yesterday, he watched as a young boy helped an old man carry a

heavy basket. Today, he saw a young girl shouting at her mother. The
more he saw, the less he spoke.

As the days went on, he spoke less but heard more. The old owl heard
people talking and telling stories.

He heard a woman saying an elephant jumped over a fence. He heard

a man saying that he had never made a mistake.

The old owl had seen and heard what happened to people. There
were some who became better, some who became worse. But the old
owl in the tree had become wiser, each and every day.