HOW often we look at others and envy them their power and position, forgetting that most of us get equal chances of bettering ourselves, it’s only that we don’t grab opportunities that come our way: A young man wished to marry a farmer’s beautiful daughter so he went to the farmer to ask his permission. The farmer looked him over and said, “Go stand out in that field! I’m going to release three bulls, one at a time. If you can catch the tail of any one of them, you may marry my daughter!” The young man stood in the pasture awaiting the first bull. The barn door opened and out ran the biggest, meanest bull he’d ever seen. He decided that one of the next bulls had to be a better choice than this one, so he ran over to the side and let the bull pass through the pasture out the back gate.
The barn door opened again. Unbelievable. He had never seen anything so big and fierce in his life. It stood pawing the ground, grunting, slinging slobber – as it eyed him. Whatever the next bull was like, it had to be a better choice than this one. He ran to the fence and let the bull pass through the pasture, out the back gate.
The door opened a third time. A smile came across his face. This was the weakest, scrawniest little bull he had ever seen. This one was and as the bull came running by, he positioned himself just right, jumped at just the exact moment and grabbed… but the bull had no tail! Now here’s another tale, not tail! A girl was exploring some caves by the seashore. In one of the caves she found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled up some clay and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn’t look like much, but they intrigued her so she took the bag out of the cave with her and as she strolled along the beach, to pass her time, she threw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as she could.
One of the clay balls dropped and cracked open on a rock. Inside was a beautiful, precious stone. Excited, she started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. She found precious stones in all the clay balls left, and then it struck her. She had thrown most of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. I leave you with these two tales: One saying, that everything we see in life is an opportunity to be caught by the tail and the other, that what we have in our hand and are carelessly throwing away may be the potential for something great. Grab and hold onto the opportunities that come your way..!
—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com
