Every path has its puddle. – English Proverb
While we may not be able to see her path, she is certainly not afraid of a puddle. Are you?
What does that mean?
To me, this is a fairly good represen-tation of life in general. We all travel down our path. We often come to forks or intersections among the paths.
Choosing which path to take next is a complex one, involving many variables. Yes, there will be the occasional monomaniac on a mission, but most will take a little time to try to figure out what would be the best path for us.
This quote reminds us that every path has a puddle. There is no perfect path with absolutely no issues, problems, or puddles. All we can do is prepare for them, and vow to find a way forward despite them.
It also helps if our attitude towards puddles is to jump into them with both feet! Yes, we might get a little wet, but unless we’re in our best clothes, who cares? Is life about staring vexedly at puddles, or having fun?
Why is our attitude important?
It is up to us to determine how we will approach life. Some will insist that life treat them fairly. That’s not going to be a happy life, is it? Into each life a little rain must fall. And that’s where puddles come from.
We can complain about it, or we can get busy and do something about it. The difference between the two is mostly our attitude. Yes, there are things beyond our control, but that doesn’t mean we sit down and pout, does it?
That tactic hasn’t worked for me, at least not since about the age of two. Instead, we can try to change our attitude, and perhaps our focus. So often we see an obstacle, and our focus immediately becomes locked onto the obstacle, and our attitude goes negative.
If we keep thinking of the puddle as the nastiest, ickiest thing on the planet, we probably wouldn’t want to step in it. If it’s just a puddle, and a smallish one at that, will your attitude be a little different? After all, until you need a boat to cross, it’s just a puddle.
Where can I apply this in my life?
I would apply this to any and every puddle, obstacle, difficulty, or challenge you encounter in your life. How is that for a short list? Why stop anywhere short of that? Are there some puddles you want to have stop you from continuing down your chosen path?
Personally, I try to find some way to make the puddle work for me, or at least to have fun while doing it. I turn it into a challenge. How few steps in the water before I am across? Can I find the shallowest crossing? Can I find the places where there are high points and only have a few deep steps?
I also try to remember where the path is leading me. What is a pair of soggy sneakers and socks compared to the reward waiting for me at the end of the path? Again, it comes to attitude and a little bit of where I choose to place my focus. I imagine that’s something anyone can do, with practice.
As an example, back when I was in second grade, I often walked home from school for lunch. One day, after a significant spring shower, I went jumping into puddles, just for the splash. After all, I had on my rain-boots and wasn’t going to get all that wet.
Until I jumped into a puddle that a neighbor kid had dug out for a fox-hole for playing Army, and was suddenly waist deep in water. Yes, I was rather wet. Yes, I was quite cold. But I slogged home. What else could I do? Sit there and cry? That wouldn’t get much done, would it?
Mom was amazing. She got some hot soup in me, ran me through a bath, got me in fresh clothes and back to school before lunch hour was over. She didn’t consider the puddle as anything other than a minor annoyance, and certainly wasn’t going to let it ruin the day for either of us.
Where are your puddles? Where have you sat down at the side of the path and stared, helpless, in the face of a puddle? What is waiting for you on the other side? What are you afraid of, should you try to cross the puddle? Has your imagination turned it into a deep lake or a raging river?
How would your life be different if you could only get past that fear, that worry, that insecurity? That doesn’t mean be reckless and just take action to be taking action. Think it through, identify what might happen, and take reasonable precautions. That’s just good sense, right?
But if your goal is to get through your life without getting a little wet, you’re going to miss out on the fun which can come from jumping and splashing in puddles. And you’ll have a much harder time getting anywhere, as every path has its puddle.
From: Twitter, @Sports_HQ
confirmed at : http://www.thetop100.net/…/david-roads-top-100-ancient-proverbs/
Photo by Robert & Pam
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Reblogged this on maha's place.
Hello, I’m a relative newcomer to your blog and I enjoy your posts very much. In recent times amongst those which have particularly appealed to me has been “give what you can, share what you have.. etc”. What appeals is not just the sentiment but the words in which it is expressed and I wondered if you had already discussed the short poem by Lorenzo il Magnifico (Lawrence the Magnificent a prominent member of the Medici family), which is “Quant è bella giovinezza/ che si fugge tuttavia/ chi vuol essere lieto, sia!/ di doman non c’è certezza”. Roughly translated it is : “how beautiful is youth/ which slips fleetingly away/ who would be happy, be so!/ for tomorrow is uncertain” I like the Italian original for its succinctness and because of its slightly unusual A-B-B-A rhyming pattern which I have not attempted to reproduce in translation.
Thanks for all your blogs and the effort that goes into them.
Thanks for the kind words, I’m glad you like the posts.
No, I haven’t seen that quote as yet. I did a series of Machiavelli quotes, but I don’t think I’ve done anyone else from that era.
Trying to get poems or rhyming stanzas right must be a translator’s greatest challenge. If you get the meaning across, how do you also keep the pattern? Which do you favor when translating? Sometimes there is great beauty in the words chosen. I’m told that’s why many like to read books in their original language. Nice thing, if you have a talent for languages.