When is glass in your foot a good thing?

Image with gratitude to Sam Mcjunkin at Unsplash

Last night, searching for the lunar eclipse in the sky I trod on a piece of glass.

Now some people would say the lesson from this is to wear shoes outside. Or don’t look up at the sky when you’re walking around - look where you’re going! However it definitely wasn’t that lesson as the piece of glass was far too small to see.

But for me this was the lesson of don’t judge whether something is a good thing or a bad thing as A) - it just means you get caught in the ego trap of things are going my way, things aren’t going my way and the roller coaster of emotions that go with that. (And why should they always go my way anyway?) And B) Who really knows whether this thing that resembles a good thing (or a bad thing) is actually good or bad in the long run?

So, when I went back inside to tell Alex of my failure in finding the moon. I said half jokingly “I didn’t find the moon, but I found the next best thing - a piece of glass” .

And lo and behold, 5 minutes later after washing my foot in the bath, I was leaning on the bathroom window sill as Alex put a plaster on my foot and through the window in the 10cm gap there was the moon right in front of me. Really rather beautiful and strangely red.

I might never have seen it but for that piece of glass.

This reminds me of a parable of a Chinese Farmer. He was elderly and poor and lived with his son who took care of the farm with their one horse. One day his horse ran away. and the villagers commiserated with him - “Oh no, that is such bad luck!” He replied “Good luck, bad luck who knows.?”.

The next day the horse returned with a pack of wild horses. The villagers thought this was wonderful “What good luck!” they said. “Good luck, bad luck who knows.?” he replied.

A few days later the man’s son broke his leg whilst breaking in the wild horses. “Oh no, what bad luck!” He replied “Good luck, bad luck who knows.?”.

The next day the Chinese army passed through the town and took with them all the able bodied young men to fight in a war with the neigbouring Mongols. The farmer’s son with his broken leg was useless to them. “What good luck” said the villagers. “Good luck, bad luck who knows.?” he replied.

We never really know what the consequences of the things that happen to us are in a wider way. If we are lucky we will be able to look back and reflect on how some of the experiences we labelled as bad were a blessing for us in some unexpected way, or perhaps a blessing for our family or friends or community.

“Try not to resist the changes that come your way. Instead let life live through you. And do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come?”

Rumi.

What would it be like to not have expectations of how life should be? How you should be? Or how others should be? To never be disappointed…

What would it be like to look for the hidden gift in every life experience? The way our pain and suffering can give us the deepest of understanding and insight. It can sometimes inspire us to do great things and other times bring us together with others. And you may say, and perhaps you are right, that in some experiences there is no gift. But I will carry on looking anyway, as the worst thing that happened to me in my life is also the thing that led me to transform my life. It was the greatest gift. And it took a long while to see it like that. There’s no rush.