A story is told of an old wise man. His name Jabali.
Who earned lots of esteem and nobility not only from his village but also from the
neighboring villages. Anyone who went to him with a problem left his place
happy and hopeful. He had a solution to everyone
and every problem. Whatever problem you may think of, personal problems to
family problems, business problems, societal problems, name it. He had a
solution.
Jabali was highly spoken of by the villagers.
However, there was a young man who was really disturbed by the way the villagers
went into raptures over Jabali. He
created problems of every sort he thought could never be solved and took it to
this old man. To his bewilderment, the solution that was offered always convinced
him.
One day, during an open air counseling session in
the village, this young appeared. Interrupting the proceedings, he stood
between the old wise man Jabali and the villagers, caught a butterfly in the
air and folded it into his palm.
“Old man!” he shouted, “Dead or alive?” he asked,
stretching his folded palm towards the wise Jabali.
The villagers looked at the situation in trepidation,
imagining how tricky that situation was to the wise Jabali. If he says alive,
the young man would crush the butterfly to death. If he says dead, the young
man would simply open his palm and release the butterfly to freedom. Either
way, the wise Jabali would fall for the trick.
“Dead or
alive, old man?” he yelled again, frightening the cloud of silence covering them.
But silence crept in again, leaving everyone in awe. The old man took a sip of
water, cleared his throat, looked at the young man straight in the eyes and
said,
“Young man, the power is in your hands.”
Life is a journey full of diverse circumstances. We
can either seek problems or seek solutions in the face circumstances. Take the
walk of life positively and accept that which comes your way because you have
the power to change it and/ or make it better.
There is so much to be drawn from this ancient story
that can apply in our lives. In summary, I would like to share my lessons from
the story by a one of my favorite quotes; “The man (woman) who thinks he (she)
can and the man (woman) who thinks he
(she) can’t are both right. Which one
are you?” ~ Henry Ford
Whatever you want to do, the power is in your hands.
©Olegamba 2014.
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