The "A Lesson To Be Learned, Today!" Story

 It was an ordinary day.  Reading a free 16-page booklet that I find every week when I go to my local grocery store.  The booklet has a variety of stories as well as cross-word puzzles and recipes.   It is titled "The Fishwrapper"  and has many valuable lessons in it each and every week.  One of my favorite stories from this past week was titled "The Boy Who Changed A Village."  Thought I would share it with you today.  See if you can learn any lessons from it.  

The Boy Who Changed A Village

In a small mountain village, it was the custom of the villagers to strap on their knapsacks each morning.  Then, during the day, each time they worried about something or felt depressed about a problem, they would pick up a small pebble and put it in their knapsack.  The knapsacks were heavy and a burden to carry because the villagers never emptied them.  They carried their burdens every day.  It was all they knew.  One day one of the village elders walked down to the riverbank, bent over from his knapsack full of burdens, and noticed one of the boys from the village skipping pebbles across the water.  The boy's knapsack was empty.  "What are you doing?" the old man asked.  "And why is your knapsack empty?  Why aren't you carrying your burdens like the rest of us?  "I come down to the riverbank at the end of each day," the boy said, "and skip my pebbles across the water until my knapsack is empty.  I see no reason to keep carrying them."  The old man was stunned, and so bent over from his knapsack full of burdens that he could hardly move.  He had never seen anyone cast their burdens away like that.  "Would you like to try it?" the boy asked.  The old man was hesitant, yet it seemed like a good idea.  Slowly he reached into his knapsack that was large and heavy from all the burdens he had accumulated over many years.  He took a pebble and studied it, recalling the burden of pain that he felt when he had placed it in his knapsack.  He was so bent over that it was difficult to cast the burden away and watch it skip across the water and finally disappear, but he somehow did it.  The boy smiled.   The old man smiled also.  It was easier than he thought to let go of the burdens.  Then he tossed another pebble, another burden, then another, and another.  The boy stayed and watched.  They built a fire and the old man kept throwing until his knapsack was at last empty.  He felt so relieved.  The next day the old man, standing straight and tall, told the other villagers what had happened and how good he felt.  They could see how happy he was, how he looked and acted like a different person.  They were amazed.  At the end of the day, all the villagers joined the old man and the boy and went to the riverbank and skipped their burdens across the water until their knapsacks were empty.  They were amazed at how good and happy they felt.  From that time on they unloaded their burdens at the close of every day.  A sign was erected at the entrance to the village that said: 

"It's Hard To Be

On Top Of The World

When You're Carrying It on

Your Shoulders.

Let Go And Live."

Try it yourself!  It seems to work for me.  I never felt better!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.