Inspirational Short Story, Female Fantasy Art, Relaxing Music

We can secure other people's approval,

if we do right and try hard;

but our own is worth a hundred of it. . . .

-- Mark Twain

Inspirational Short Story, Female Fantasy Art, Relaxing Music

There was once a young girl who thought that if only she tried a little harder, she could please her parents; if only she were prettier, her friends would like her better.

She tried constantly to gain their approval.

Sometimes they said they liked her, and sometimes they didn't.

Then one night a fairy came to her in a dream and told her, "You are fine just the way you are. You don't have to change.

I want you to start noticing your own beauty and loving yourself exactly the way you are."

Doing what the fairy suggested -- giving love and approval to herself -- wasn't easy, but she found that when she did it she felt a peace that was not dependent on what others thought.

She thanked her fairy for caring enough to come and give her such wise advice.

There are two kinds of slaves,

the prisoners of addiction,

and the prisoners of envy.

-- Ivan Ilich

No emotion brings us more personal pain or wastes more of our time than envy.

When we envy, we are never free from stress, because envy takes no holidays.

Shakespeare called envy the green sickness.

Envy magnifies molehills into mountains.

Just how foolish envy truly is becomes clear when we think of it as a row of hooks on which to hang grudges.

When we envy others, especially our family members, we blind ourselves to the good we could see in all people.

We are ignoring life's flowers to gather bouquets of weeds.

When we envy the accomplishments or possessions of another, we will be better off if we look to our own prized possessions, to those things in ourselves that no one else has in exactly the same way.

I think of the trees and how simply they let go,

let fall the riches of a season, how without grief

(it seems) they can let go and go deep into their roots

for renewal and sleep.

-- May Sarton

"How can I do what you say," asked the child, "and still be me?" "Look at me," said the tree. "I bend in the wind, droop in the rain. Yet I always remain myself, a tree."

"Look at me," said the man. "I can't change."

"Look at me," said the tree. "I change every season from green to brown to green again, from bud to flower to fallen leaf. Yet I always remain myself, a tree."

"I can't love anymore," said the woman. "With my love, I have given away all that I am."

"Look at me," said the tree. "There are robins in my branches, owls in my trunk, moss and ladybugs living on my bark. They may take what I have, but not what I am."

Whether we know it or not, we are like the tree. Only our pride hangs on to a false sense of self, wanting to keep everything, refusing to follow advice or orders.

What we do doesn't matter; how we do it is what counts.

_______________

11/11/2024

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