A Bird In The Hand Is Worth Two In The Bush
Hello Out there,
I’m back on my blog after a
long time. I have no excuse but the usual lame ones. This one is going to be a rather long one to
make up.
Yesterday I was chatting
with one of “my girls” who was in need of a little consolation. So after listening to her for some time I told
her, “Think of the things in your life right now at this moment that you really
appreciate, which make you happy.” She
thought for a while and then said, “There’s nothing. My life is screwed.” So I began to elaborate things in her life
that she had in her hand at that precise moment, and as I went on and on with
the list the frown on her face turned into a smile and she said, “Yes Sister.
You are absolutely right. I do have
these things.” “Why then,” I asked, “ do you focus on what you do not
have? Look at your life again. Do you think that you have all that you need
at this moment to have a good life?” She
could not deny it. I thought about it. This is one characteristic of man that has existed
right from the beginning no? Take Adam
and Eve, they wanted what they could not have, forgetting the fact that they had
all that they needed and much more - the many riches that God had already
placed at their disposal.
When I was a youngster we
lived in a house called The Ark. It was
a really big bungalow type of house with a huge unkempt garden in front of it
and another big house in the same garden.
The house came with its fair share of problems – There was always a rat
lurking around, we had to get up early in the morning to fill water and I could
never ever enjoy a good bath under the shower, The roof was old and tiled and
used to leak during the monsoons so we had to place buckets at different points
to catch the water. It badly needed a
paint job which we could not afford. So I would sit and dream of living in a
modern flat where there would be a continuous flow of water every day from TAPS and I could indulge myself under a
nice cool shower. And it would be modern
and trendy and would have everything in its place. It was only after I got my dream did I realize
what a treasure I had left behind. I mean,
never again could I play cricket or hide and seek inside the house, sit out in the garden with the family on hot
summer evenings and sing songs and laugh till our sides burst, collect pit pits
during the monsoons and enjoy the cheap thrills you got when they burst like
little crackers in your hand, run in and out of the neighbour’s house, sleep
all together in dormitory style sharing a great many jokes and laughing
hilariously at each other before giving in to drooping eyelids, eat fruit directly picked from a mango tree, a custard apple tree, little
green guavas…….. and space, plenty of space…space within the house, space
between you and the neighbours so their noise didn’t disturb you….a large dining
table which fit well into a large dining room around which all of us could sit down together and have our meals.
Hmmn …Right now I’m
thinking about my father. We could learn a few lessons from him. He was one man who always did well with the
bird in the hand. He managed his money
carefully, never got into debt over his dreams and managed to feed a family of
twelve – ADEQUATELY. He never craved to
own a house, yet lived in the best of houses that life could afford paying a
reasonable rent. His only ambition was to serve God and family. And we his children never lacked anything
that was essential. Though we had no
large sums of money we really could never call ourselves poor. There was always good food on the table, an
education, a life with friends, family, church, lots of entertainment. There’s
something to be said for that bird in the hand.
So here’s looking at you
kid – Look at your life again. And focus
on that bird in the hand! The two in the bush are not worth a
tinker’s damn. You have all that you need right now to be truly happy.
