2007年6月26日星期二

Have you taken out all the nails?

When I was tidying up my office cubicle, I saw the post-it note on the wall. I decided to re-tell this story I once heard. Sorry that it has to be written in English due to technical difficulty.


A boy loved to throw his tantrums. One day, the father brought him to the garden and said "Every time, when you have thrown your tantrums, nail a nail onto this block of wood and if you did not throw any tantrums for a day, you may remove one nail from this block of wood."

The boy did what he was told. Initially, he nailed more than 10 nails onto the wood for many days; but subsequently, the nails are fewer and soon, he began to remove some from the wood.

One day, he managed to remove all the nails. He was so happy and brought his father to the garden. "Dad, you see, I have removed all the nails" said the boy happily. The father said, "Son, I am happy for you. You have learnt to control your temper. However, have you seen the holes on the wood? The holes are not removed. Just like when you threw your tantrums, you hurt someone. The tantrum is over but the hurt may be still there. We should not make 'holes' in our relationship for the 'holes' made will take ages to mend. "


Today, I look at the "wood" (a piece of post-it note) on my wall in my office. I only left 1 more "nail" (pins) to remove. But there are a lot of holes made. I hope those who I have hurt before, will forgive me.


May I be able to remove the last pin and stop putting new ones onto the post-it note; May I only plant good seeds in my heart and not overwhelmed by anger; and lastly, may all who read or do not read this, be well and happy and never fall into this trap of anger.

2 条评论:

David (AKK) 说...

Here is the transilation in chinese:

激励故事:伤口 (转贴)

从前,有一个脾气很坏的男孩,他的爸爸给了他一袋钉子,告诉他,每次发脾气或者跟人吵架的时候,就在院子的篱笆上钉一根。一周下来,男孩共钉了37根钉子。后面的几天他学会了控制自己的脾气,每天钉的钉子也逐渐减少了。他发现,控制自己的脾气,实际上比钉钉子要容易的多。终于有一天,他一根钉子都没有钉,他高兴的把这件事告诉了爸爸。

  爸爸说:"从今以后,如果你一天都没有发脾气,就可以在这天晚上拔掉一根钉子。" 日子一天一天过去,终于有一天,钉子全部拔光了。爸爸带他来到篱笆边上,对他说:"儿子,干得不错!可是,篱笆上的这些个钉子洞,永远也不可能恢复了。就象你和一个人吵架,说了些难听的话,你就在他心里留下了一个伤口,像这个钉子洞一样。"

插一把刀子在一个人的身体里,再拔出来,伤口就难以愈合了。无论你怎么道歉,伤口总是在那儿。要知道,身体上的伤口和心灵上的伤口一样都难以恢复。

马铃薯比基尼妹妹 说...

这是一篇我不会忘记的故事