Short stories reflecting the truth about life

> The turtles
>
> A turtle family decided to go on a picnic. the turtles,
> being naturally slow about things, took seven years to
> prepare for their outing. Finally the turtle family left
> home looking for a suitable place. During the second year of
> their journey they found a place ideal for them at last!
>
> For about six months they cleaned the area, unpacked the
> picnic basket, and completed the arrangements. Then they
> discovered they had forgotten the salt. A picnic without
> salt would be a disaster, they all agreed. After a lengthy
> discussion, the youngest turtle was chosen to retrieve the
> salt from home. Although he was the fastest of the slow
> moving turtles, the little turtle whined, cried, and wobbled
> in his shell. He agreed to go on one condition: that no one
> would eat until he returned. The family consented and the
> little turtle left.
>
> Three years passed and the little turtle had not returned.
> Five years....six years... then on the seventh year of his
> absence, the oldest turtle could no longer contain his
> hunger. He announced that he was going to eat and begun to
> unwrap a sandwich.
>
> At that point the little turtle suddenly popped out from
> behind a tree shouting, "See! I knew you wouldn't
> wait. Now I am not going to go get the salt."
> [Some of us waste our time waiting for people to live up
> to our expectations. We are so concerned about what others
> are doing that we don't do anything ourselves.]
>
> ********
>
> The Frogs
>
> A farmer came into town and asked the owner of a restaurant
> if he could use a million frog legs. The restaurant owner
> was shocked and asked the man where he could get so many
> frog legs! The farmer replied, "There is a pond near my
> house that is full of frogs - millions of them. They all
> croak all night long and they are about to make me
> crazy!" So the restaurant owner and the farmer made an
> agreement that the farmer would deliver frogs to the
> restaurant, five hundred at a time for the next several
> weeks.
>
> The first week, the farmer returned to the restaurant
> looking rather sheepish, with two scrawny little frogs. The
> restaurant owner said, "Well... where are all the
> frogs?" The farmer said, "I was mistaken. There
> were only these two frogs in the pond. But they sure were
> making a lot of noise!"
>
> [ Next time you hear somebody criticizing or making fun of
> you, remember, it's probably just a couple of noisy
> frogs. Also remember that problems always seem bigger in the
> dark. Have you ever laid in your bed at night worrying about
> things which seem almost overwhelming like a million frogs
> croaking? Chances are pretty good that when the morning
> comes, and you take a closer look, you'll wonder what
> all the fuss was about.]
>
> ************
>
> The Pretty Lady
>
> Once upon a time a big monk and a little monk were
> travelling together. They came to the bank of a river and
> found the bridge was damaged. They had to wade across the
> river. There was a pretty lady who was stuck at the damaged
> bridge and couldn't cross the river. The big monk
> offered to carry her across the river on his back. The lady
> accepted. The little monk was shocked by the move of the big
> monk. "How can big brother carry a lady when we are
> supposed to avoid all intimacy with females?" thought
> the little monk. But he kept quiet. The big monk carried the
> lady across the river and the small monk followed unhappily.
> When they crossed the river, the big monk let the lady down
> and they parted ways with her.
>
> All along the way for several miles, the little monk was
> very unhappy with the act of the big monk. He was making up
> all kinds of accusations about big monk in his head. This
> got him madder and madder. But he still kept quiet. And the
> big monk had no inclination to explain his situation.
> Finally, at a rest point many hours later, the little monk
> could not stand it any further, he burst out angrily at the
> big monk. "How can you claim yourself a devout monk,
> when you seize the first opportunity to touch a female,
> especially when she is very pretty? All your teachings to me
> make you a big hypocrite The big monk looked surprised and
> said, "I had put down the pretty lady at the river bank
> many hours ago, how come you are still carrying her
> along?"
>
> [This very old Chinese Zen story reflects the thinking of
> many people today. We encounter many unpleasant things in
> our life, they irritate us and they make us angry.
> Sometimes, they cause us a lot of hurt, sometimes they cause
> us to be bitter or jealous. But like the little monk, we are
> not willing to let them go away.We keep on carrying the
> baggage of the "pretty lady" with us. We let them
> keep on coming back to hurt us, make us angry, bitter and
> cause us a lot of agony. Why? Simply because we are not
> willing to put down or let go of the baggage of the
> "pretty lady". We should let go of the pretty lady
> immediately after crossing the river, that is after the
> unpleasant event is over.This will immediately remove all
> our agonies.There is no need to be further hurt by the
> unpleasant event after it is over.]