Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The Zebra

My DSiL (dear sister-in-law) gave me a great set of CDs for Christmas by Wayne Dyer, called "Excuses Be Gone." I've been listening on my way to work every morning -- found I haven't missed the Kix Chicks on 106.7 at all...
One of Wayne's stories has stuck with me for a couple of weeks. I'll attempt to paraphrase, but if you get a chance to hear the CDs or read the book, I highly recommend it.
It seems Wayne was out on an African safari with his family. One morning he got up particularly early so he could see the African sun rise over the savannah. About 50 yards from his tent was a herd of zebras, grazing in the early morning. What was remarkable about this sight was that one of the zebras had clearly been mauled by a lion. It's hind quarters were mangled, one hind leg was missing completely. But this zebra was calmly grazing with all of the other zebras. Later that morning one of Wayne's children was complaining about something (no Internet connection, I think). Wayne told them what he had seen that morning, adding "and do you think that zebra was complaining? Was it asking 'why am I the only zebra who was picked on by a lion?' That zebra was going to be dead before lunch, but there it was calmly eating breakfast and hanging with it's friends. No complaints. You have no wireless connection in the middle of Africa? You got nothing to complain about -- that zebra now, that zebra has lots it could be complaining about....
I've told DS and DD the zebra story. Whenever I hear a "whoa is me" from one of them, I say "tell it to the zebra."

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