fables | Who I am

I was just chatting with a friend of mine on Facebook. She is such a nice person. She was trying to explain as so many of my friends have been all day that I need to continue to remain true to myself.

Have you ever tried changing for someone? Maybe your parents, or a boyfriend, or a teacher or boss? Did it work? I have tried but I end up being a failure because I didn’t remain who God had made.

There are so many opinions in the world and we definitely are all blessed to be able to think and voice them. I used to always try to please my parents, friends and husband. It was important to me with the shaky childhood I had as a toddler.

It didn’t work. I knew my parents loved me but I needed to hear it, and this never happened. Sometimes we need to be told or recognized in some verbal way. Not all of us are like that. Some don’t care what others think about them.

Then there are others who are extra sensitive to words, and I guess, no I believe I fall in that category. So reading all the positive comments today helped me so much. I made a promise to myself this morning to not let all things I hear, to take them personally. It will be a hard task but I will save myself a lot of pain.

At the end of my conversation with Mary Grace M. Salomes she asked me if I had ever read the story of the donkey. I said I had not. She told me to google it and read it, so I did. See how obedient I am? LOL

This is the story I found and I can see why Mary thought I should read it. It fit me to a T. Here is the story.

Thank you Mary for teaching me by showing me.

Æsop. (Sixth century B.C.) Fables.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey

A MAN and his son were once going with their Donkey to market. As they were walking along by its side a countryman passed them and said: “You fools, what is a Donkey for but to ride upon?”

So the Man put the Boy on the Donkey and they went on their way. But soon they passed a group of men, one of whom said: “See that lazy youngster, he lets his father walk while he rides.”

So the Man ordered his Boy to get off, and got on himself. But they hadn’t gone far when they passed two women, one of whom said to the other: “Shame on that lazy lout to let his poor little son trudge along.”

Well, the Man didn’t know what to do, but at last he took his Boy up before him on the Donkey. By this time they had come to the town, and the passers-by began to jeer and point at them. The Man stopped and asked what they were scoffing at. The men said: “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor Donkey of yours—you and your hulking son?”

The Man and Boy got off and tried to think what to do. They thought and they thought, till at last they cut down a pole, tied the Donkey’s feet to it, and raised the pole and the Donkey to their shoulders. They went along amid the laughter of all who met them till they came to Market Bridge, when the Donkey, getting one of his feet loose, kicked out and caused the Boy to drop his end of the pole. In the struggle the Donkey fell over the bridge, and his fore-feet being tied together he was drowned.

“That will teach you,” said an old man who had followed them:

“PLEASE ALL, AND YOU WILL PLEASE NONE.”