{"id":322,"date":"2010-10-31T13:07:08","date_gmt":"2010-10-31T13:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.inspireme.net\/blog\/?p=322"},"modified":"2010-10-31T13:26:09","modified_gmt":"2010-10-31T13:26:09","slug":"the-china-farmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inspireme.net\/blog\/the-china-farmer\/","title":{"rendered":"The China Farmer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The China Farmer<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nOnce upon a time, there was a farmer in the central region of China. He didn’t have a lot of money and, instead of a tractor, he used an old horse to plow his field.<\/p>\n

\nOne afternoon, while working in the field, the horse dropped dead. Everyone in the village said, “Oh, what a horrible thing to happen.” The farmer said simply, “We’ll see.” He was so at peace and so calm, that everyone in the village got together and, admiring his attitude, gave him a new horse as a gift.<\/p>\n

\nEveryone’s reaction now was, “What a lucky man.” And the farmer said, “We’ll see.”<\/p>\n

\nA couple days later, the new horse jumped a fence and ran away. Everyone in the village shook their heads and said, “What a poor fellow!”<\/p>\n

\nThe farmer smiled and said, “We’ll see.”<\/p>\n

\nEventually, the horse found his way home, and everyone again said, “What a fortunate man.”<\/p>\n

\nThe farmer said, “We’ll see.”<\/p>\n

\nLater in the year, the farmer’s young boy went out riding on the horse and fell and broke his leg. Everyone in the village said, “What a shame for the poor boy.”<\/p>\n

\nThe farmer said, “We’ll see.”<\/p>\n

\nTwo days later, the army came into the village to draft new recruits. When they saw that the farmer’s son had a broken leg, they decided not to recruit him.<\/p>\n

\nEveryone said, “What a fortunate young man.”<\/p>\n

\nThe farmer smiled again – and said “We’ll see.”<\/p>\n

\nMoral of the story<\/strong>: <\/p>\n

There’s no use in overreacting to the events and circumstances of our everyday lives. Many times what looks like a setback, may actually be a gift in disguise. And when our hearts are in the right place, all events and circumstances are gifts that we can learn valuable lessons from.<\/p>\n

\nAs Fra Giovanni once said:<\/p>\n

\n“Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty, believe me… the gift is there and the wonder of an overshadowing presence.”<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The China Farmer Once upon a time, there was a farmer in the central region of China. He didn’t have a lot of money and, instead of a tractor, he used an old horse to plow his field. One afternoon, while working in the field, the horse dropped dead. Everyone in the village said, “Oh, what a horrible thing to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[20,26,16],"yoast_head":"\nThe China Farmer - Inspirational Short Stories and Quotes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/inspireme.net\/the-china-farmer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The China Farmer - Inspirational Short Stories and Quotes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The China Farmer Once upon a time, there was a farmer in the central region of China. He didn’t have a lot of money and, instead of a tractor, he used an old horse to plow his field. One afternoon, while working in the field, the horse dropped dead. Everyone in the village said, “Oh, what a horrible thing to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/inspireme.net\/the-china-farmer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspirational Short Stories and Quotes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-31T13:07:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2010-10-31T13:26:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/inspireme.net\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/inspireme.net\/\",\"name\":\"Inspirational Short Stories and Quotes\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/inspireme.net\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/inspireme.net\/the-china-farmer\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/inspireme.net\/the-china-farmer\/\",\"name\":\"The China Farmer - Inspirational Short Stories and Quotes\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/inspireme.net\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-31T13:07:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-10-31T13:26:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/inspireme.net\/#\/schema\/person\/e7458397e267abd44cdcadbd365eac57\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/inspireme.net\/the-china-farmer\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/inspireme.net\/#\/schema\/person\/e7458397e267abd44cdcadbd365eac57\",\"name\":\"Soliman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/inspireme.net\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9826194ff160f123c9deedf16566c8f3?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Soliman\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inspireme.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inspireme.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inspireme.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspireme.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspireme.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspireme.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inspireme.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspireme.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspireme.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}