Wednesday, June 08, 2011

The truly valuable gift

This story has been around for a while in various versions. Stories on this overall theme go all the way back to the Desert Fathers and Mothers of early Christian monasticism and no doubt exist in other wisdom traditions as well.

Here's the version I found today and it really spoke to me:

A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise woman."I've been thinking," he said, "I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone.

-- Author Unknown

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