I love this legendary, teachable tale. I do not know who to credit it to, because it appears that many people have taken credit for it. So I will just say that it is not me that deserves credit, but the story is very teachable.

There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically.

“Maybe,” the farmer replied.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed.

“Maybe,” replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy for what they called his “misfortune.”

“Maybe,” answered the farmer.

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.

“Maybe,” said the farmer.

The lesson here is that you can never really know what events in your life are good and which are bad. Sometimes things that seem so marvelous can really drive series of events that seem on the surface to be really awful. Sometimes that seem really terrible can drive further events that seems fantastic.

The smartest thing is to reserve judgment on things – refuse to label events as good or bad. Things that happen are simply things that happen. We cannot control all that happens to us – all we can do is walk confidently in the direction of what we think we want. Then it is our job to pay attention. Watch and respond to the things that we witness, knowing that we didn’t cause them. We cannot take the blame, nor the credit, for life. Life happens, we observe and we respond.