Tuesday 10 August 2010

The Grass is Always Greener.



I did not think anybody would be at all interested in what I ate, sorry Jerry. My daughter made a marvellous Thai Green Curry while I cooked fresh rainbow trout on the fire outdoors. The trout were stuffed with leeks and dill fresh from my plot and lemon. The only small problem was the string I held all this into the fish had a tendency to want to burn. Such is life.

Now while you think of that I am thinking of that fresh grown tomato, there is nothing to beat produce freshly picked.

This discussion reminds me of a beautiful little story of the young girl.

The little girl lived in a small, very simple, poor house on a hill and as she grew she would play in the small garden and as she grew she was able to see over the garden fence and across the valley to a wonderful house high on the hill – and this house had golden windows, so golden and shining that the little girl would dream of how magic it would be to grow up and live in a house with golden windows instead of an ordinary house like hers.

And although she loved her parents and her family, she yearned to live in such a golden house and dreamed all day about how wonderful and exciting it must feel to live there.

When she got to an age where she gained enough skill and sensibility to go outside her garden fence, she asked her mother is she could go for a bike ride outside the gate and down the lane. After pleading with her, her mother finally allowed her to go, insisting that she kept close to the house and didn’t wander too far. The day was beautiful and the little girl knew exactly where she was heading! Down the lane and across the valley, she rode her bike until she got to the gate of the golden house across on the other hill.

As she dismounted her bike and lent it against the gate post, she focused on the path that lead to the house and then on the house itself…and was so disappointed as she realized all the windows were plain and rather dirty, reflecting nothing other than the sad neglect of the house that stood derelict.

So sad she didn’t go any further and turned, heartbroken as she remounted her bike … As she glanced up she saw a sight to amaze her…there across the way on her side of the valley was a little house and its windows glistened golden …as the sun shone on her little home.

She realized that she had been living in her golden house and all the love and care she found there was what made her home the ‘golden house’. Everything she dreamed was right there in front of her nose!

As they say the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

This blog is linked to my other.   Castles in the Sky

8 comments:

  1. Typo in the title...but grass cannot be greener than green. Green is reflected light from a surface that absorbs all other spectrum frequencies...My physics teacher would have clouted you with pressure tubing or a copy of Abbott and called you a miserable wretch if you'd uttered such nonsense in his class...Alawys may be a Welsh village...with a very green village green that's greener than the greenest green ever seen...

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  2. Lovely painting Ralph, as well as the lesson that goes along with it. :)

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  3. Ralph, your anniversery dinner sounds wonderful! Yes, the grass is always greener on the other side, at least until you have to mow the lawn!

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  4. I like this story. I liked how the golden windows from afar inspired her to dream... Sure wish she had painted all these lovely dreams. In the end, we all find out that we already have everything we need. So why are so many people unhappy and depressed? If only they could open their eyes and see the love and beauty around them...

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  5. There is nothing like fresh vegetables that you've grown. Tomatoes are in season in Maine (we're lucky this year), and the chard, spinach, green beans, corn, squash (need any zuchinni or yellow summer squash?), cukes, melons ... ahh ... such good food. Sounds like you have a great plot. As to the grass being greener ... I would say it only appears greener. Always perception. If people could see the way the world as it is, rather than the way they perceive it to be, I believe most would be content ... content equals joy. I love your stories and read your blog every day. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and art.

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  6. I loved the limited palette in this art!
    Love... pity many dont have the wisdom to realize its power...I wish people get opportunities to through what this girl went through and learn this valuable lesson.

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  7. This was my story when I was 5 years old. I would sit on my grandmother's steps and look across the fields to the house with golden windows. When my grandmother realized what I was doing she took me by the hand and we walked to the house across the fields. She turned me around and looking back her house glistened with gold, and there in the garden my uncle stood waving at me.
    To this day the only golden windows I have known is my grandmother's house filled with light, love, my grandmother's guiding hand and my uncle cheering me on!

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