AS I walked this morning I felt sand. I frowned, then grinned, as I remembered a very rich man I’d once interviewed, “Didn’t you have your share of headaches and problems as you made your millions?” I asked him. “Yes, but one day I stopped worrying about them!” “How?”
“Well,” said the rich man, “I had just got off my car in my very expensive shoes and was on my way to meet a client, when suddenly I felt the irritating sensation of sand in my shoes!” “You stopped and pulled the sand out?” I asked.
“I couldn’t,” smiled the millionaire, “When you get off a posh car, you don’t stand and pull off your shoes do you?”
“So you tolerated the sand?” “No, I didn’t,” said the rich man, “I went in, sat down and as I talked I felt the horrible sand, as we discussed price I felt the sand again and when I should have showed restraint while going over the business deal, the sand irritated me so much it reflected in my voice and we nearly blew the agreement I had gone for! And then as I got back into my car, I pulled out the little grains of sand..”
“And cursed them?” I asked. “No,” said the rich man quietly, “I put it into a glass container and decided that I would never again be bothered by the sand in my shoes!” “Why the glass container?”
“Because I realized that all the little things that irritate you are like sand in your shoes: You get up in the morning, there’s no hot water, you blow a fuse! A little later your driver comes late, you yell and rant and rave, and then in the office you find your star salesman has mucked up, and your blood pressure goes up and a few days later…”
“You are in hospital with a heart attack!” I completed. “Which is why I remind everyday by looking at this little glass container, never to get irritated by those little particles of sand ever again!” As I walked this morning I smiled as I remembered the rich man and his sand in his shoes story, “How true!” I thought.
I had a choice; either I could walk getting more and more irritated with the sand or I could totally ignore the sand.
“But!” and I was sure it was the rich man’s voice that floated into the park I was walking in, “To ignore the sand in your shoes, to stop getting bothered by the little things that irritate you, you need to concentrate on that something else!”
“What’s that sir?” I ask in my mind. “Concentrate on life! On joy! Tell yourself it’s your day to have a ball, and no little sand, no bit of irritation, no trouble or problem is going to come in the way.” Suddenly I felt the sand no more..!
