This is the story of Life

As we come to the middle of the year, when the planet is flooded with warm sunlight, or cold darkness, it's important to remember that embedded in every burden is a great blessing, and embedded in every blessing is a great burden.

Our experience of life depends solely on our perspective - and what we are choosing to see.

Whenever I felt life was being unfair, and there was too much darkness, my father would remind me of this beautiful Taoist story:

“An old farmer relied heavily on his horse for the main bulk of the work on his farm. One day this only horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbours came to visit. "Such bad luck, now you have no animals to help you farm," they said sympathetically.

"We'll see," said the farmer with a smile on his lips.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. "How wonderful, now you will have so many more animals to help you. What good luck"the neighbours exclaimed.

"We'll see," replied the old man with a smile on his lips.

The following day, his only son tried to tame one of the feral horses, was thrown off and broke his leg. “What bad luck” the neighbours exclaimed “who will farm your crops now?”

"We'll see," answered the farmer.

The next day, 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 neighbours congratulated the farmer on how lucky he was.

"Good news, bad news – We will see," said the farmer with his knowing smile.

This is the story of life.

We are always constantly judging what is happening in the moment. We are only seeing a snapshot of reality, and unable to see the grand picture of what is really happening. We fail to see that life is in constant duality, and every experience is relative. When negative things happen, you can be sure there is a positive experience just around the corner, we just need to be able to see it.