Hi again:
The picture here is about the cat, so very relaxed.
Here is a story my brother Ken sent me a few days ago, called the Monk's Story:
A man's car breaks down near a monastery. He knocks on the door, and says, "My car broke down. Do you think I could stay the night?"
The Monks graciously accept him.
As the man tries to fall asleep, he hears a strange sound. It is a sound unlike anything he's ever heard before. It is weird but absolutely wonderful. The mythological Sirens that seduced sailors into crashing their ships came to his mind.
He just cannot sleep that night. He tosses and turns, trying to figure out what could possibly be making such a seductive sound.
Next morning, he asks the Monks what the sound was, but they say, "We can't tell you because you're not a Monk."
Distraught, and full of puzzlement, the man leaves the monastery.
He was never able to forget that sound.
Ten years later, and almost a broken man, he goes back to the monastery and pleads for the answer again. The Monks reply, "We can't tell you. You're not a Monk."
The man says, "If the only way I can find out what is making that beautiful sound is to become a Monk, then please, may I be made a Monk."
The head Monk replies gravely, "To do so, you must travel the earth and find out for us exactly how many blades of grass there are and the exact number of grains of sand. When you tell us these answers, you will have become a Monk."
The man sets about his task. After fifty years of searching, he returns as a grey-haired, haggard, old man and knocks on the door of the monastery. He is taken before a gathering of all the Monks. "Have you found the answers?" they ask him.
The man replies, "In my quest to find what makes that beautiful sound, I have traveled the entire world and have found what you asked for. By God's design, the world is in a state of perpetual change. Only He knows what you ask. A ll a man can know is himself, and only then, if he is honest and reflective and willing to strip away self deception."
The Monks reply, "Congratulations, indeed, a wonderful answer. You have now become a Monk. We shall now show you the way to the mystery of the sacred sound."
They lead the man to a wooden door, where the head monk says, "The sound is beyond that door." He gives the man a key and his old heart, nearly bursting with awe and anticipation, he opens the door!
Behind the wooden door is another door made of stone. He is given the key to the stone door and opens it, only to find a door made of ruby.
He then needed keys to further doors of emerald, pearl and diamond.
Finally, they come to a door made of solid gold. Now the sound has become very clear, very definitive. This is the door to the magic room. The Monks say, "Here is the last key to the last door."
The man is very apprehensive. His life's wish is now just behind that door!
With trembling hands, he unlocks the door, turns the knob and slowly pushes the door open.
Falling to his knees, he is utterly amazed to discover the source of that haunting and seductive sound.
But I can't tell you what it is - because you're not a Monk.
Interesting story....
Steven
