A BUCKET OF ADVICE
by Mary C. Macher
(originally published in Universal Matters, Summer, 1999)
I don’t remember what the exact circumstances were or how old I was at the time, but I remember feeling very discouraged. Still living at my parents’ home, I was on my way up to my room (probably to be by myself and miserable) when my father stopped me on the stairs. He must have known how I felt as he told me this story. One day, two frogs wandered into a barn. While getting a drink, they both fell into a bucket of milk. After kicking and kicking and trying to get out, the two tired frogs realized that they were trapped. There was just no escaping from that bucket. The one frog gave up and sank to the bottom. But the other frog kept on kicking his legs. When the farmer came back later to get his bucket of milk, he found one frog drowned and one frog floating on a huge lump of butter. The advice I got from Dad’s little story was very clear: don’t give up. It is the kind of advice that is well worth remembering.
Everyone goes through times of discouragement and some of those times seem worse than others. When it seems that there is no way out of whatever your “bucket of milk” is, as though there is no solution to your situation or your goal will never be achieved, remember the story of the two frogs. If you can picture yourself as one of those frogs in that bucket of milk, choose the image of the one on the huge lump of butter that got to see the surprised look on the farmer’s face. So, keep on kicking and don’t give up. You never know what will churn up.
Animated butterfly by Sevenoaks Art. They have really beautiful animated art that does not cost anything but they do ask that they be acknowledged for the art.
© 2009 M C Macher LLC