Let not the rough winds shake you up

There are always spaces between where you are, and where you want to go. These spaces are not easily traipsed as there is a lot that comes in the middle. Just like chafing is required to polish a gem, similarly without facing friction that often comes in our way, we cannot actualise our potential.

A friend recently told me about her senior colleague who had been a huge impediment to her career. She’d thwarted her plans and made every attempt to keep my friend away from the limelight. I was enraged on my friend’s behalf, and realized that we all have difficult people in our lives.

Only when we stop focusing on them and start focusing on ourselves, can we make good out of a bad situation.

A man troubled by his immediate boss was on the verge of giving up his job when he came across a learned man. Inspired, he asked the sage for advice and help.

“I’m deeply disturbed, under my manager’s overcast sky I am unable to spread my wings”.

The sage quickly grasped the situation and took the man for a walk. When he came across a particularly windy path he picked up some mud and let it drop freely from between his fingers. The mud blew in the wind for a while and then finally succumbed to gravity and fell to the ground. “What did you observe?” the
Sage asked.

The man responded, “In windy places mud can fly.” The sage smiled, “Yes, the mud flies only in some places but when the wind dies down the mud has no option but to fall on the ground. Some people will trouble you in some areas of your life only because they can. Don’t let those areas percolate into other aspects of your life.

Also, remember these people are powerful only for a short period of time, once the wind dies down their power is mitigated”. This gave the dispirited man a gust of energy and he went home reassured.

When faced with difficult situations and people ask yourself this question; how far will the mud fly? And you already know the answer. Only as far as the wind will carry it. Only as far as you let it.