.

“And the small grain of sand

That had bothered him so

Was a beautiful pearl

All richly aglow.”

– from poem “Lessons from An Oyster” – full poem and source at end

Kabir – The couplet

?????? ????? ?? ???????, ?? ???? ??? ??? |

????? ?? ????? ???, ??? ?????? ??? ||

transliterated:

Tinka kabahun na nindiye, jo paanv tale hoye |

Kabahun udh aankhon pade, peed ghaneri hoye ||

Translation:

Despise not that tiny grain, that is to be found under the foot |

Were it to float up and into the eye, extremely painful be to you it would ||

My understanding:

We cast away tiny things, despise them as beneath us, and look down on them as not worth our attention and time. However, history is replete with tales of victory of the little, the slow or the meek.

David beat Goliath with just a small catapult; Aesop told us the tale of the slow tortoise beating the speedy hare in a race; Jataka tales tell us the story of the ant who freed the elephant; the tiny wasp or bumble bee always reminds us of how huge it is when in flight; BP has learnt and is teaching the world the importance of the one failed test and the consequence of not paying attention.

Little pleasures fill our day with more happiness than the big one we chase but never find; little acts of kindness are what reap big rewards; little murmurs of politeness crescendo into a wealth of well-being and communal peace.

Focus on the little things, and the big things will naturally happen. Ignore them, and even the big things dissolve into a cloud of tiny fragments that quickly floats away and out of reach.

Every thing and every being on earth and all around us is here for a purpose – look and you will find a new understanding and appreciation of the complexity of the eco-system we live in and are members of!

Poem : Lessons from an Oyster

By Georgy – (http://www.turnbacktogod.com/poem-lessons-from-an-oyster/)

There once was an oyster

Whose story I tell,

Who found that some sand

Had got into his shell.

It was only a grain,

but it gave him great pain.

For oysters have feelings

Although they’re so plain.

Now, did he berate

the harsh workings of fate

That had brought him

To such a deplorable state?

Did he curse at the government,

Cry for election,

And claim that the sea should

Have given him protection?

‘No,’ he said to himself

As he lay on a shell,

Since I cannot remove it,

I shall try to improve it.

Now the years have rolled around,

As the years always do,

And he came to his ultimate

Destiny  stew.

And the small grain of sand

That had bothered him so

Was a beautiful pearl

All richly aglow.

Now the tale has a moral,

for isn’t it grand

What an oyster can do

With a morsel of sand?

What couldn’t we do

If we’d only begin

With some of the things

That get under our skin.

Read more at http://www.turnbacktogod.com/poem-lessons-from-an-oyster/#ixzz0r19L7h00