This too shall pass

"Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."
- Harriet Beecher Stowe

Once upon a time, in a faraway Chinese province, lived a poor scribe who lived with his only and very much loved son. He was so poor, that the only inheritance he could leave to his son was knowledge of calligraphy.

Then, one day, it came time for the poor scribe to depart this valley of tears. Before he passed away, he gave his son two small boxes, one white and one black. “Alas, I have nothing to leave to you except this. Please, my son, remember and keep them always with you. When one day, you are in terrible sorrow, and it seems that life is not worth living anymore, open the black box. White one you keep, and open it when you think that you are the luckiest man on earth.” Saying this, the old man died and the son was left weeping, holding one black and one white box.

As he was now alone, young man went from job to job, often forced to work hard and long, just for daily bread. He wandered from province to province, slept hungry in forests, without any opportunity to find his place under the sun. One morning, he woke up feeling pain from hard work in all his joints and started weeping. “This is the end; I can’t live like this anymore” he thought. Suddenly, as he remembered his fathers dying words, he reached in this bag and with his trembling hands, opened the black box.

Neighbor’s dirty laundry

"One should look long and carefully at oneself before passing judgment on others." 

- Moliere (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin)

A young couple moved in to their newly bought house. One morning, young wife looked out her window at her neighbor’s laundry hanging on the line and began making remarks about how dirty the laundry still was.

Days went by, and still the neighbor didn’t learn how to clean her dirty laundry properly. As time went by, every day when the neighbor hanged the laundry, young wife continued to complain: “Hadn’t she heard of bleach?  Was she using cheapest detergent? Worse yet, wasn’t she aware of the fact that everyone would see the dingy towels hanging on the clothes line.” All this time, the husband was silent and it seemed that he was not interested in this issue.

Who is that girl?

"People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.  When you figure out which it is, you’ll know exactly what to do."

-  Michelle Ventor

Once upon the time, a thirteen-year-old son of a wealthy mandarin official had a dream in which he met the old Sage and learned that he was destined to wed the girl who worked in the fruit stand across the street. When he awoke, he was quite skeptical, but, curious as he was, he went out to have a look at the girl.

She was six years old, was completely filthy, and had a stream of snot running from her nose. He was horrified and furious! “I am never going to marry this horrible abomination!” In his anger, he threw a rock that hit her eyebrow and sent her crying into the house.

A decade passed, and son of the mandarin official, now 23, took the imperial exams and received his first government job. Since the rulers respected and honored his father, a marriage was arranged for him to the daughter of the Prime Minister.