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Maybe

STORY TIME!!

There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who worked his crops for many years.
One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. "Such bad luck," they said sympathetically.

The Farmer replied, "Maybe."

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. "What wonderful luck!" the neighbors exclaimed.

The Farmer replied "Maybe."

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy. "What bad luck!"

The Farmer replied "Maybe."

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. "What good luck!"

The Farmer replied "Maybe."
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So...what does this have to do with anything?
We read through this story in my Marriage and Family class yesterday and I fell in love with it. I often comment in class, but this time I did not have the opportunity to. So now I am writing my thoughts in the form of a blog post.

Why did the farmer say "Maybe" to good and bad fortune? Why could he not be happy or sad with his neighbors?  I think that the whole idea of "Come what may and love it" is encompassed in that one word- "Maybe."

As we go through life, good and bad things will happen. I think that it is important to have a positive, yet realistic view of life. It is not good enough to be a fake positive all the time. Instead, it is good to have realism thrown in their as well. That is what the farmer did. I think that had an interesting view on life.

When life does not go the way we want it to, we need to realize that it is not the end. Maybe it is bad luck in the present, but in the future it will not always be that bad. Something good can come from our bad experiences.. I know that they have come from mine.

At the same time, when good things happen to us we should not get overconfident. Just because life is good in the moment, it does not mean that it will always be. Trials will come. That is just part of being human. This may sound pretty pessimistic, but stay with me for a moment... Good things will happen, but we need to always remember our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We can't just attribute it to good luck and give up on keeping the commandments because we do not  'need' help from them in that moment. We need to stay strong in the bad times and the good times. This is something that I am still striving for.

So that is the story of the Taoist Farmer and my thoughts on it. Not the most interesting blog post, I realize, but I enjoyed reflecting again on this story!

Come what may and love it.
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