The Psychology of Quality and More

The Path is a Choice

A man owned a house on the corner of a busy street. With a school nearby, all the students cut across the corner of his property which carved out a trench like path in the grass. Each year he tried a new strategy of fixing the problem. For many years he reseeded the grass, then he laid sod, then he raised a fence, he yelled at the children & even got a dog but the problem continued year, after year, after year. He became bitter and defeated & had reached the end of his rope after so many years in grief over the small strip of land. While considering selling his home, he had an new idea. He laid interlocking brick and made the path permanent. It looked wonderful & people appreciated it. His burden was lifted. He felt good about himself, his solution and even the students. He never concerned himself with it again.

I heard this story while at a Virtues Project workshop. It describes how we can carry an emotional state or "choose" to shift it by looking at a situation differently. It also suggests that purposefulness and determination are best when tempered with flexibility and creativity.
~if the path you're on isn't working ~ take a different path~

Name: Barbara

Email: imarainbow@hotmail.com

Contributed: 17-Mar-07