Joy & Rose's great-uncle & great-aunt gave them a lovely picture-book a while ago, a Caldecott-honor book by Jon J. Muth called Zen Shorts. The book tells several stories-within-a-story, short Zen meditations told in a manner appropriate for children.Here's one of them:
There was once 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 two other wild horses.
"Such good luck!" the neighbors exclaimed.
"Maybe," replied the farmer.
The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown off, and broke his leg. Again, the neighbors came to offer sympathy.
"Such bad luck," they said.
"Maybe," answered the farmer.
The day after that, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army to fight in a war. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by.
"Such good luck!" cried the neighbors.
"Maybe," said the farmer.
This story is good food for thought for me. I'm not a lot like this old farmer (garden produce notwithstanding). I tend to get dragged down by the "such bad luck" times and get mighty euphoric with the "such good luck" ones.
Here's one recent sequence of events and how it might look in some alternate-universe version of a JoyMama who's got the Zen thing going on:
Toward the end of last school year, JoyMama learned that Joy's speech therapist was going to take a different position in the school district, and wouldn't be available for Joy's team the next year, though ideally we'd have loved to see all three team members continue.
"Such bad luck," her loyal blog-land friends commiserated.
"Maybe," replied JoyMama.
Then we learned that the replacement would be a newer speech therapist with a lot of energy and good ideas. The new speech therapist coordinated efforts with the occupational therapist to bring projects to Joy's daycare in which all the daycare kids could participate. Not only is Joy taking well to the new strategy, but now is producing take-homes suitable for scrapbooking!
"Such good luck!" came the cheers in the comments.
"Maybe," replied JoyMama.
Then came word several weeks into the school year that the occupational therapist, who's been doing wonderful work with Joy and MADE several weighted vests for her, got reassigned to classroom-based work and would be leaving the team pronto. Now a totally unfamiliar OT would have to learn all about our complicated little sensory-seeker, all from scratch.
"Such bad luck," sympathized the readers.
"Maybe," replied JoyMama.
Then we learned that the new OT we've been assigned comes to the school district from Birth-to-Three (so she's experienced in working with early-childhood issues) and not only that -- she used to be the OT for one of the other kids at Joy's daycare, so she's already acquainted with Joy and Lynda and how the daycare is set up! I met with her this morning, got her signed up onto our team Yahoo group, she asked good questions and sounds enthusiastic.
"Such good luck!" exclaimed the bloggers.
"Maybe," replied JoyMama.
I guess we'll have to see what's next to come our way!
