I listen to the Daily Jay (Jay Shetty) on the app Calm. The other day he shared a parable that really opened my eyes. The parable is of a farmer who owns a cow. His neighbors announce how lucky he is. He replied with a simple maybe.
The cow runs away and the neighbors tell the farmer what bad luck that was. Again, the farmer replies, maybe.
The cow returns with wild horses and the neighbors rejoice for such good fortune. But with every event, the farmer just responds with a simple, maybe.
The farmer’s son broke his leg trying to ride a wild horse. The neighbors sighed with what bad luck that was.
Maybe.
The army came to recruit the farmers son, but the son was denied due to his broken leg.
What beautiful luck!
Maybe.
My takeaway from this parable is that our life is like a painting. Every event in life is a simple brush stroke of our life’s story.
To let our emotions label each event as extremely good or bad can really inhibit our days, zap our energy, and deplete us mentally. Until we add further brush strokes we cannot see the fullness of the picture.
I wish I would have understood this concept over the past decade. One confusing piece of mail would shake my whole world and I stressed greatly over it. It would eventually show to be of no concern. A decision made, a legal issue that didn’t seem to go in my favor, a less than adequate job I accepted because I was desperate were all enough to rock my boat for months on end. Even years. But now as I look back I see how they each provided a blessing to me. All I saw at the time was one brush stroke. Each single stroke of the brush made me feel awful. I allowed myself to feel awful…and for a very long time.
An example would be when I took a job at an insurance company. It was at the end of 2020 and I left my health care position. At that upside-down time in our world, I had to do what I felt was morally right for my own conscience and self-preservation, so I left healthcare. I took a $3 pay cut out of desperation. I accepted that insurance job for $12 an hour.
But I made it. I was able to support my daughter and myself. I am so grateful to God for that blessing. But most of all, I was able to spend the last two weeks of my dad’s life with him. No other job would have allowed me to leave as a new hire.
I think if we accept that our life is a beautiful painting filled with both upward and downward strokes, we will realize what once seemed like horror was actually something quite beautiful.
Our life is like a canvas. Or, even a puzzle. Each stroke, or piece, is needed to build our story. Allowing every movement to dictate our moment, our week, or even years, just doesn’t do us justice.
If that makes sense.
♥️
Andi
Coffee with Andi 