‘Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear?~Lao Tzu
I read a story few days ago. In a restaurant, there was a lady having dinner with her friends when suddenly a grasshopper sat on her plate. She panicked and started screaming. Seeing her, all her friends started to howl and scream. Within few minutes, there was a panicking atmosphere in that restaurant. A waiter was silently observing this chaos. He went to that lady's table and threw that grasshopper out of the window nearby. All of a sudden, everyone became quiet and things were back to normal.
What I learned from this is not the waiter's bravery but something more significant. More than the problem, it is the reaction to the problem that creates the chaos in life.
Lesson learnt:
1. Do not react. Always respnd.
2. Reactions are always instinctive whereas responses are always well thought of, just and right to save a situation from going out of hands, to avoid cracks in relationship, to avoid making hasty decisions in life, to avoid taking decisions in anger, anxiety, stress or hunger.
As Bob Proctor said, "When you
react, you are giving away your power. When you
respond, you are staying in control of yourself.".
