Broken Dreams

As little children bring their broken toys
with tears for us to mend.

I brought my broken dreams to God
Because He is my friend.
But instead of leaving Him
in peace to work alone.
I tried ways which were my own
At last, I snatched them back and cried:
"How could you be so slow?"
"My child", he said. "You never did let go".

The Obstacle in our Path

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping 

the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way. Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the king indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand. Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.

The Spider Web

An evil man, about to die, meets an angel at the gates to Hell. The angel says to him: “It is enough for you to have done one good thing in your life, and that will help you.” “Think hard,” the angel said. The man remembers that one time, as he was walking through a forest; he saw a spider in his path and detoured so as not to step on it. The angel smiles and a spider web come down from the sky, allowing the man to ascend to Paradise. Others among the condemned take advantage of the web, and begin to make the climb. But the man turns on them and begins to push them off, fearing that the web will break.

At that moment, it breaks, and the man is once again returned to Hell. “What a pity,” the man hears the angel say. “Your concern with yourself turned the only good thing you ever did into evil”.

Lesson: Your selfishness hurts you in the end.

Narcissus

The Alchemist picked up a book that someone in the caravan had brought. Leafing through the pages, he found a story about Narcissus.

The Alchemist knew the legend of Narcissus, a youth who knelt daily beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty. He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and drowned. At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was called the narcissus.

But this was not how the author of the book ended the story.

He said that when Narcissus died, the goddesses of the forest appeared and found the lake, which has been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.

“Why do you weep?” the goddesses asked.

“I weep for Narcissus”, the lake replied.

“Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus”, they said, “for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand”.

“But.. was Narcissus beautiful?” the lake asked.

“Who better that you to know that?” the goddesses said in wonder. “After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!”

The lake was silent for some time. Finally, it said:

“I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.”