Here are two tales about overcoming adversity: looking honestly at one’s knowledge and skills, acknowledging shortcomings, and working to improve them daily.
The wisdom of the oyster
While studying in the United States, I had a Japanese roommate whose family had been pearl divers for generations. She had a pearl that her mother gave her when she left Japan to study abroad.
Before she left, her mother called her aside and gave her the pearl, saying: “When a grain of sand gets into an oyster’s shell, it feels very uncomfortable. The oyster can’t expel the sand, so it faces two choices: complain and make its life miserable or find a way to assimilate and coexist.
“The oyster starts to use its energy and nutrients to wrap the sand. As the sand gets covered by the oyster’s layers, it becomes a part of the oyster and is no longer a foreign object. The more the oyster envelops the sand, the more it becomes a part of itself, allowing the oyster to live peacefully with it.”
Oysters don’t have brains; they are invertebrates considered low on the evolutionary scale. Yet even a brainless, lower animal knows how to adapt to an unchangeable environment and turn an unpleasant foreign object into a tolerable part of itself. How can human wisdom be inferior to that of an oyster?
I’ve heard many stories about pearls, but rarely from the perspective of the oyster dealing with adversity. Life is full of unsatisfactory situations. Perhaps the most important lesson for modern people is to embrace, assimilate, and incorporate adversity into their lives to make their days bearable.
Reinhold Niebuhr’s famous prayer says: “God, grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Why should we complain and make life difficult when faced with setbacks? Card games are not about the hand you’re dealt, but how you play it. While it’s essential to control what you can, shouldn’t you also learn from the oyster to make your life easier when you can’t control everything?
The tale of the cracked water bucket
A farmer had two water buckets. He carried them to the river daily using a yoke to fetch water. One of the buckets had a crack, so by the time they got home, it was only half full, while the other bucket was always full. The farmer could only bring home one and a half buckets of water each day for two years.
The perfect bucket was proud of its flawlessness, while the cracked bucket felt ashamed of its imperfection and inability to perform its task. After two years of what it saw as a failure, the cracked bucket finally spoke to the farmer at the river. “I feel ashamed because I have a crack. I leak water all the way home, and you only get half a bucket of water.”
The farmer replied: “Have you noticed the flowers on your side of the path? There are no flowers on the other side. I knew about your flaw from the beginning, so I scattered flower seeds along your side of the path. Every day, as we walk back, you water them. For two years, I’ve been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my table. Without your flaw, I wouldn’t have these lovely flowers to brighten my home.”
Each of us is like that cracked bucket, with our own flaws and imperfections. If we embrace our adversities, recognize others’ strengths, and learn to improve our shortcomings, our lives will become more relaxed, joyful, and colorful.
Follow us on X, Facebook, or Pinterest
