I have learnt that it is easier to pass across a message with stories. So, I am going to share another share that I read some years back. Take your time and follow the story through. Ensure that you understand the lessons. The lesson is one that everybody must not miss. It is all about an elephant that lost an eye.

An elephant came to the edge of a stream of clear rushing water as it was thirsty. The elephant leaned over, dropped its trunk into the cool water and… plunk! “What? What happened?” the elephant cried. What the elephant fears most has happened. “I can’t see! My eye… it fell in the water! Oh nooooooh,” the elephant wailed in a panic, “I lost my eye!”

The fact is that the elephant’s right eye had popped out of its socket and fallen into the stream. The elephant searched frantically for the eye, groping with its trunk along the bottom of the stream. The more he groped, the cloudier the water became. That made him panic even more, and he started churning up great piles of sand, until he couldn’t see anything. Then the elephant heard the sound of laughter. This made the elephant to be more annoyed. Many of us find ourselves in this situation and we will do the same. Furious, the elephant looked around to see who it was, and saw a little green frog sitting on a log laughing.

“You think this is funny?” the elephant shouted. “I just lost an eye and that makes you laugh?” “Do you think this is funny?”

“What’s funny is to see how upset you are. Calm down and everything will be fine,” the frog replied.

The elephant felt a bit ashamed and took the frog’s advice. He stopped moving his trunk around, and soon the water became clearer as the sand sank to the bottom. And there in the stream lay his eye. He reached for it with his trunk and popped it back into its socket. And then he thanked the frog.

Lesson:

This may sound like a normal story but it contains great wisdom. There’s nothing funny about losing an eye. But what of the sudden panic, thrashing around in murky water, desperation? That’s exactly what happens when we lose control and panic. Our haste makes us blind to open doors around us. We become temporarily incapable of seeing the world around us objectively and rationally. But there is an antidote to panic: wait, calm down. Calm down and allow the situation to become clear. And the black clouds will disperse.