A group of frogs were travelling through the woods, when two of them fell into a deep pit.
All the other frogs gathered around the pit.
When they saw how deep it was, they told the two frogs that they were as good as dead.
The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit with all of their might.
The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead.
Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up.
She fell down and died.
The other frog continued to jump as hard as she could. Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at her to stop the pain and just die.
She began jumping even harder and finally made it out.
When she got out, the other frogs said, “Did you not hear us?”
The frog explained to them that she was deaf - she thought they were encouraging her to jump out of the hole the entire time.
Apart from being one tough determined lady frog, what does she teach us?
Perhaps she croaks the question "what would you do today if you literally couldn't hear any words of doubt?"
Be it the naysayer or the voice in our own very head, how much higher could we jump, how much more could we enjoy, if we swapped doom and doubt for encouragement and belief?
Like this amazing frog, perhaps sometimes our life depends on it 🙂
Happy Monday!
Love, Jo x
P.S. This story is a zen kõan. A kõan is a Buddhist riddle used by zen monks during meditation to help them realise deep truths about life. Often seemingly paradoxical at first, the idea of a kõan is for the meditator to let the story percolate until eventually understood by the spirit. I wonder if any deeper froggy wisdom might jump up if you muse on it today?
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