The Lost Cow

A wise man was hiking in the forest with his student 
when he noticed in the distance a run down hut.

They decided to pay a visit, and see what's going on.

When they got there they saw, 
the poor hut was in bad shape and the family: 
parents with 3 children were all dressed in rags.

The wise man asked the father of the family:
" You are so far from the village and any source of work. 
How do you survive?"

The man answered:
"We have a small cow, my friend. 
It gives us some milk every day.
Some of it we use for ourselves and some 
we trade for other foods in a nearby town"

The wise man thanked the man and left. 

On the way out he whispered to his student:
"Go find that cow and take it away"

The student was horrified!
How could he do that?
This was the family's only source of food!

He tried to argue but the teacher wouldn't hear of it.
Depressed, the student did as the teacher said and took away the cow. 

A few years later,
still completely ridden with guilt...
the student decided to go back to the family, 
confess to what he'd done, and try to help them.

He didn't have any money so he thought he would work for free, 
and help them buy a new cow. 

When he got back to the hut, 
he saw that the environment had changed. 

Trees were blossoming..
The house was well kept..
and the children played in the yard..

He asked the man in the yard:
What happened to the family who lived there before?
The man told the student they were still there!

The student looked around at the man and the children, 
and indeed he recognized them!
They have grown and looked healthier and so well!

He asked the man in amazement:
"How did you manage to change your life so much ?!??"

The man answered:
"We had a small cow that was lost and taken from us...
from that moment on we knew we had to do things 
differently if we wanted to survive.

We had to develop new skills we didn't know we had...
And that's how we achieved what you see here now!"

===
Sometimes life pushes us to the edge, 
and takes away everything we thought we needed, 
in order to survive. 

That's when we discover new depth of strengths, 
we didn't know we had..
and we end up making huge positive changes in our lives. 

Sometimes we need to get to the end of our rope...
only to discover...
there's a new stronger rope tied at the other end!

Have a wonderful Saturday, 

Keren