There once was a traveller who came to a small village, tired and weary from his long journey. The traveller did not have anything to eat and hoped that a friendly villager would be able to feed him. He came to the first house and knocked on the door. He asked the woman who answered, if she could spare just a small bit of food as he had travelled a long journey and was very hungry. The woman replied, “I’m sorry I have nothing to give you. I can barely feed my own family.”
So the traveller went to another door and asked again. The answer was the same: “I have nothing to give you.” He went from door to door and each time was turned away.
Undaunted, the traveller went to the village square, took a small tin cooking pot from his bag, filled it with water, started a fire and dropped a stone in the pot. As he boiled the water, a passing villager stopped and asked him what he was doing. The traveller replied, “I’m making stone soup. Would you like to join me?” The villager said yes, and he asked if carrots were good in stone soup. “Sure,” said the traveller. The villager went home and returned with carrots from his garden to add to the boiling water.
Soon, another curious villager came by and was invited to join them. She went home and returned with some potatoes. A young boy passed by and soon joined the group, bringing his mother and dinner plates from their home.
In time, a crowd gathered with everyone offering their own favourite ingredient: mushrooms, onions, salt, black pepper, acorn, squash. Everyone wanted to be part of the creation. Finally, the traveller removed the stone and declared, “The stone soup is ready!” And the whole community joined in a feast where there was none before.
-adapted from a Swedish folktale and from Marcia Brown’s retelling of the fable in her book Stone Soup.
When I first heard this story as a child, it was a nail and not a stone. But whether it’s a nail or a stone, the message is always the same. You can share whatever little you have and it is possible to make something great with just a little effort. This story was referenced in one of my daily meditations and it made me think about today’s NaBloPoMo prompt:
C.S. Lewis said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” How good are you of placing others before yourself?
Well, it depends…
My greatest lesson in placing others before myself was taking care of my mum during her battle with Ovarian Cancer. But you know, it wasn’t a question of humility, or thinking of myself less…this was my mother and she needed me.
Since then though…I think I’ve grown into a selfish little thing. It’s a struggle.
When things are going well and the sun is shining it’s easy to share our gifts and good fortune with each other. But the world we exist in sometimes, can be a sad place full of lack…whatever that “lack” might be – love, energy, ideas, money. No matter how positive you are, in times like this your go-to response would be to hoard what little you do have.
I’m guilty of this. I am the villagers in the story and I’m about to bail on this prompt.
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I’m participating in BlogHer’s NaBloPoMo Challenge for the month of December:
You can read some awesome entries here: NaBloPoMo December