Maybe

I want to share a story with you:

There once was a farmer whose horse ran away.  Upon hearing the news his neighbours came to visit. 

“Such bad fortune” they said full of sympathy.

“Maybe”, the farmer replied. 

The next morning the horse returned bringing with it 3 other wild horses.  “What great fortune”, the neighbours exclaimed. 

“Maybe”, replied the old man. 

The following day the farmers son tried to ride one of the untamed horses.  He was thrown off and broke his leg.  The son would forever limp.  “What terrible fortune”, the neighbours cried. 

“Maybe”, answered the farmer. 

The next morning the army came through the farmers village to draft young able bodied men for the war.  Seeing his son’s limp they passed him by. The neighbours congratulated the farmer.  “What wonderful fortune”, they said. 

“Maybe”, said the farmer.

So it is very hard to know which experiences will be good or bad.  Life is forever changing.  We can’t control the future but we can control how we react to what happens in our lives.  At the end of 2020 I had my first relapse with 2 new lesions, in almost 13 years and yes it was disappointing but unfortunately that is the nature of the beast that is MS. 

I could have gone one of two ways with my reaction.  One, to get angry and upset about it, or two, to work out what was next and just to continue to live my life in conjunction with my MS and not let it dictate what I was going to do.  I wanted to be more like the farmer to accept what was and see what the outcome would be.  Luckily for me I have started on a new therapy and it is working brilliantly, so life goes on. 

So what experiences have you faced?  Are they good, bad, indifferent? And how have you reacted?

Try to be more like the farmer, accept what is and move on with life.  For life is too short and it is about 10% of what happens and 90% of how we react to it. 

‘The bad news is, nothing lasts forever, the good news is, nothing lasts forever’

~ J. Cole