{"id":3739,"date":"2018-10-12T12:43:08","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T10:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/plenicidad.com\/?p=3739"},"modified":"2018-10-12T12:50:41","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T10:50:41","slug":"good-luck-bad-luck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plenicidad.com\/en\/mente-y-emociones-en\/good-luck-bad-luck\/","title":{"rendered":"Good luck, bad luck\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who knows?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A while ago I read a Sufi tale that I would like to share with you today. It is short and has a moral.<\/p>\n

A long time ago, in a poor Chinese village, there lived a farmer with his son. His only material belonging, other than his land and a small straw house, was a horse that he had inherited from his father.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"chino<\/em><\/p>\n

One fine day the horse escaped, leaving the man without an animal to work his land. His neighbours, who treated him with lots of respect due to his honesty and diligence, came to his house to tell him how sorry they felt about what had happened. He thanked them for coming but he asked: How can you know that what happened was a misfortune in my life? Bad luck, good luck\u2026 who knows?<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Someone quietly said to a friend: \u201cHe doesn\u2019t want to accept reality, let\u2019s leave him to think whatever he wants, then he won\u2019t become sad about what has happened\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

The neighbours left, pretending that they agreed with what they had heard.<\/em><\/p>\n

A week later, the horse returned to the stable, but it wasn\u2019t alone: it brought a beautiful mare along with it for company.\u00a0 On learning this, the residents of the village, overjoyed because it was only then that they had understood the response that the man had given them, went back to the farmer to congratulate him on his luck.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBefore you just had one horse, and now you have two. Congratulations!\u201d they said<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for coming and for your support. But how do you know that what has happened is a blessing in my life? Good luck or bad luck\u2026 who knows?<\/em><\/p>\n

Bewildered and thinking that the man was going mad, the neighbours left, saying as they went \u201ccould it be possible that this man doesn\u2019t understand that God has sent him a gift?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A month later, the son of the farmer decided to break in the mare. But the animal leapt in an unexpected way and the young boy fell badly, breaking a leg.<\/em><\/p>\n

The neighbours came back to the farmer\u2019s house, taking gifts with them for the injured boy.\u00a0 The mayor of the village, solemnly, shared his condolences with the father, saying that everyone was really sad about what had happened.<\/em><\/p>\n

The man thanked him for his visit and for everyone\u2019s thoughtfulness. But he asked:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHow can you know that what has happened was a misfortune in my life? Bad luck, good luck, \u2026 who knows?<\/em><\/p>\n

This sentence left everyone stunned, because nobody was in the slightest doubt that one\u2019s son having an accident was a real tragedy. On leaving the farmer\u2019s house, they said amongst themselves: \u201cHe really has gone mad, his only son could be crippled for life and he is still doubting if what has happened is a misfortune\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A few months passed and Japan declared war against China.\u00a0 The Emperor\u2019s emissaries went all over the country looking for healthy men whom they would send to battle. On arriving at the village, they conscripted all the young men other than the farmer\u2019s son whose leg was broken.<\/em><\/p>\n

None of the men returned alive. The boy recovered, the two animals had young which were sold and gave a good profit. The farmer went to visit his friends to console and help them, as they had always stood by and supported him. Whenever one of them complained, the farmer said: \u201cHow do you know that this is a misfortune?\u201d If any of them rejoiced, he asked: \u201cHow do you know that this is a blessing?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Bad luck, good luck\u2026 who knows?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

And the men of the village understood that, despite how things may appear, life has other meanings.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This sufi tale makes us think how easy is to tag an event as good or bad… And the fact that this doesn’t help us at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[186,188],"tags":[198,197],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plenicidad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3739"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plenicidad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plenicidad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plenicidad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plenicidad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3739"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/plenicidad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3741,"href":"https:\/\/plenicidad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3739\/revisions\/3741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plenicidad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plenicidad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plenicidad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plenicidad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}