Grandpa Lost His Horse.

Morning!

This is an old story from China.

An old man once lived in a fort on the frontier. One day his horse ran off into another country. His neighbours gathered to console him, but he simply said, “Perhaps this will bring good fortune,” and did not seem troubled.

Some time later, the horse returned — bringing with it a herd of beautiful, strong horses. Everyone came to congratulate him, but the old man was not particularly pleased. “Something unfortunate may follow,” he said.

Not long after, his son fell from one of the horses and broke his leg. While the neighbours lamented the accident, the old man remained calm, saying that perhaps something good would come of it.

Soon afterwards, war broke out with a neighbouring country. All the young men were called to serve — except his son, whose leg had not yet healed.

When I first read this story as a teenager, I couldn’t understand why the old man reacted in such a counterintuitive way every time. Why can’t you simply be happy when something good happens? I wondered. The idea of suppressing emotions repelled me; it felt as though it took all the juice out of life.

As I grew older, though, I began to notice a pattern in life. It often unfolds as a chain of events that join one up after a down. Many events later reveal unexpected roles in our lives, and judging them in isolation no longer seems very meaningful. When something truly difficult happened to me, I found myself recalling the old man’s lesson.

But my understanding did not stop there.

With time, I came to believe that the old man must have felt the emotions too. It wasn’t that he suppressed them — he simply didn’t let them overtake him. Perhaps he was able to observe them rising within him, and let them pass through.

I came to this conviction because I have learned that suppression does not dissolve emotion; it only amplifies it inside us.

It’s beautiful how stories and parables I read as a child reveal deeper meanings over time, each encounter resonating differently. The stories that stay with us longest are often those with many layers and angles.

Perhaps the old man was smiling all along, knowing that a whole life still lay ahead of me.

#dailypondering