Everything Happens for a Reason...pt 2

The old Chinese folktale about the farmer, his son and horse perfectly explains the title of this posting. I will repeat it here again:

There lived an old farmer with his son at the northern frontiers. He had only one horse, and one day the horse ran away. The neighbours came to condole over his terrible loss. The farmer said, "What makes you think it is so terrible?"

A month later, the horse came home--this time bringing with her two beautiful wild horses. The neighbours became excited at the farmer's good fortune. Such lovely strong horses! The farmer said, "What makes you think this is good fortune?"

The farmer's son was thrown from one of the wild horses and broke his leg. All the neighbours were very distressed. Such bad luck! The farmer said, "What makes you so sure this isn't a blessing?"

A year later the nomads came in force across the border, and every able-bodied man was conscripted and sent into battle. The Chinese frontiersmen lost nine of every ten men. Only the farmer's son, because he had a broken leg, remained. Only because the son was lame did the father and son survive to take care of each other. Truly, blessing turns to disaster, and disaster to blessing: the changes have no end, nor can the mystery be fathomed.

Look back to your life now. Have there ever been events that if you look at it now you would say they were turning points in life whereby you were forced to make decisions as to which path to take. At that time, you may not have been pleased with the decision you have made. Neither were you happy at the circumstances that drove you to such crossroads nor forced you down any one path. But because you made that decision or took a certain path, events (positively perceived or negatively perceived) unfolded, that led you to places and people that made major impacts in your life. Impacts that enriched your life so much that you would not exchange it for anything else. And all that was possible only because of events that were perceived to be bad at the time of happening.

From my own life experience, events that happened almost two decades ago took me down a path that I actually hated but that path took me to people and other events that eventually brought me to where I am with the knowledge and growth that I now possess. All that would not have been possible if that event did not happen almost 20 years ago.

EVERYTHING happens for a reason.

What if you want to attract love and be joyously happy? But then you get caught up in the details of WHO, and you think that a particular person is the answer to your perfect relationship. The Universe can see way into the future, and it knows if a particular person will fulfill your dream or become your nightmare. When you don't receive the love of a particular person, you might think the law is not working. But it is working. Your greatest desire is to attract love and be joyously happy, and the Universe is saying, "Not him or not her, and please get out of the way, I am trying to deliver the perfect person to you."

I can again relate this from my own life experience on how I met my better half. I had just recovered from breaking up with my ex after a 4 year relationship and actually started dating an attractive lady. We both liked each other. Her job takes her offshore for extended periods but we keep in touch whenever we can. She never fails to call me whenever she returns home from abroad. She had many qualities that I liked but somehow it’s like things are stuck. Then for some reason, she said to me not to continue waiting for her as she does not know when she can be ready to settle down due to her job commitment. If it happens it happens, if I find someone else, she is ok with me letting her go. I was like, “what the hell?” Well, to cut a long story short, I knew what I wanted in my life partner but I was very fixated on the lady that I was dating. So though I would really liked to have settled down with her, I surrendered to the universe my criteria for a life partner not expecting anyone else to meet that criteria. Other girls came and went while I still dated her with her full knowledge (I sensed that she was a bit sad probably with the prospect of possibly losing out). Then one day someone arranged a blind date for me and I was like “Oh come on... you have got to be kidding me”. But a friend present at that time said to me, “So what if it’s a blind date. You won’t know where it would lead you do you?”. So I decided to give it a try, what have I got to lose anyway. Lo and behold, that decision led me to the woman who would later become my spouse. She has all the criteria that I have listed down (I should have listed more “grin”) and today I have a beautiful family.

If I had stubbornly stuck to the status quo at that time, would I have what I have today in another form? Maybe... maybe not... but I would not exchange what I have now for sure.

Therefore be very careful about getting caught up in the "who," "where," "when," or "how," because you could block your true desire from being delivered to you.

Related post
Everything happens for a reason pt 1