I sometimes tell my kids the following refrain: “We get what we get and we don’t get upset“. I like to think it helps them deal with disappointment and frustration. I’m not sure it works, but it does rhyme.
But now I know a great story about a young shepherd, I think I’ll use that instead.
A young shepherd is tending his flock when a massive rainstorm buckets down on him. He’s cold and miserable and damp. As he’s walking with his flock, he comes across another shepherd, standing in the rain and smiling, with a twinkle in his eye as he watches his sheep.
Almost angry, the young shepherd asks the older one, “You’re smiling like that?!? What, you like being stuck in this rainstorm?”
The older one replies, “Like it? Well, not always. But, having learned I can’t always get what I like, I’ve learned to like what I get.”
There’s lots of stuff in life we can’t control. What we can control is how we experience it, the attitude with which we face things that are both undesirable and unchangeable.
