"The King of Bling," as everyone called him, had everything made of gold - bricks of gold built the fortress walls. The King sat in gold chairs, walked in gold shoes, wore gold-laced clothing, ate gold-leafed food. Even the trashcans and toilet seats were gold.
Visitors had to wear sunglasses (gold-rimmed) to off-set the brightness. For hundreds of miles, the castle shimmered so bright that it rivaled the Sun itself.
Yet, the King couldn't see the gold - it was only a drab mustard yellow color in his eyes. Never-the-less, he was glad his visitors were impressed. He watched as their eyes opened with amazement.
"Magnificent!" "Glorious!" "Like Heaven on Earth!" they exclaimed. He wished he saw what they saw...
One terrible day, a ferocious storm came across the kingdom. The villagers gasped in horror as the storm shook the castle, literally lifting it from the ground in a tornado swirl, then dropping it with a smash.
When the skies cleared, the King emerged from the rubble. The castle was severely damaged. Gold bricks spread across the land. Infuriated, the King instructed his army to collect the bricks and begin rebuilding immediately!
But when the sun emerged from the clouds, the King looked out onto the land and saw something unusual...
"What is that?" he asked his servant, squinting his eyes and pointing at the sparks of gold shimmering across the land like stars lighting up a night's sky.
"That's gold, your Highness."
He stood frozen in awe of the glorious light.
He stopped his army, instead, instructing them to leave the bricks where they'd fallen. From that day on, each afternoon, when the sun shown just right, everyone danced in the streets basking in the brightness. This was the best part of everyone's day, the King's included.
The moral of the story?
I was that King, living in a house of golden health. It wasn't until my kingdom was shaken and things fell apart, that I began to see the brilliance all around me.
This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for my "health" - all that is perfectly "healthy" and all that is "wrong" by medical standards. If it wasn't for the storm, I never would have seen the gold.
In closing, a quote:
"It doesn't matter what you're given, whether it's physical deformity or enormous wealth or poverty, beauty or ugliness, mental stability or mental instability, life in the middle of a madhouse or life in the middle of a peaceful, silent desert... That's the challenge of now: What are you going to do with what you have already - your body, your speech, your mind?"
-The Wisdom of No Escape by Pema Chodron
Wishing everyone a happy and joyful Thanksgiving!
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What I like best about this parable is what happens during and after the afternoon dancing and basking each afternoon. It's taken me a long time to realize that deeply experiencing the many forms of the "gold" within and around me is both a joy and a necessity. Those daily experiences restore the equanimity I need to respond compassionately to my own struggles, and to the people and the world around me.
ReplyDeleteJulie: Great story with a wonderful turn at the end. We are thankful for you and your great advocacy for narcolepsy community.
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