A FABLE MY FATHER TOLD ME ; TORTOISE AND THE HARE

A FABLE MY FATHER TOLD ME.
It's the eve of my wedding and my father called me to his room to give me the last piece of advice as his daughter bearing his name which is about to drop that name and embrace another name.
Once there lived a hare and a tortoise who became close friends after spending many years criticizing and mocking one another's weaknesses. While the hare criticized the tortoise for his slow, sluggish walk, the tortoise often hissed , calling the hare a thoughtless runner.
One day, the Oracle directed the king to commission the two animals to carry a Calabash of sacrifice to a designated place to avert a looming disaster in the animals kingdom. To get to the place, the two animals would have to cross four big rivers three lakes. Now, the hare could run fast , so the length of the journey could have posed no problem to him. He could cover it within five days. But how would he cross the rivers and the lakes when he could not swim? The tortoise is a good swimmer, crossing the rivers and the lakes wouldd be no problem for him. But with his slow walk, the journey might take him more than three months and it would be too late to avert the disaster. Fortunately, before the two animals set out, they wisely struck a deal. They decided to unify their differences and combine their strength to make the trip a success. The hare offered to give tortoise a ride on his back if the tortoise would ferry him across the rivers and the lakes. It was considered a fair deal by both of them, and so they set out on the journey . The trip was a great success. On their return , the hare and the tortoise were hailed as heroes by other animals and were presented special awards by the king . However, what the two animals considered to be their greatest reward was the strong bond of friendship that developed between them as a result of that trip and their mutual discovery and appreciation one another's differences and strength.
LESSONS FROM THE STORY
Husband and wife need to focus on one another's strength, not their weaknesses.The more we focus on our partners strengths, the less pronounced and repulsive their his or her weaknesses would appear to us. As we mutually and constantly make rich deposits of appreciation into our relationship, it may come to the point that we become totally blindsided to those weaknesses, though they are still there.Instead of criticizing one another and working yourselves into a frenzy to force a change , take time to study one another, know your partner's areas of strength and figure out how both of you can adjust, cooperate, compromise, complement and strengthen one another.

Image source; pixabay