There is an old Zen story. A farmer’s horse runs away. His neighbors say to the farmer, “What bad luck.” The farmer says, “Maybe.”

The next day the horse comes back followed by a pack of wild horses. His neighbors say to the farmer, “What good luck.” The farmer says, “Maybe.”

The next day the farmer’s son is trying to break one of the wild horses and falls off and breaks his leg. His neighbors say to the farmer, “What bad luck.” The farmer says, “Maybe.”

The next day the army comes through the town to draft every able bodied man. The farmer’s son is spared because of the broken leg. His neighbors say to the farmer, “What good luck.” The farmer says, “Maybe.”

This fable is about perspective.

A situation is what it is. Good or bad is your judgement of the situation.

“It’s not things that trouble us, but our judgement about things” – Epictetus

As the story says, what seems to be good luck can turn out bad and what seems to be bad luck can turn out good.

The old farmer kept all of this in perspective.

Life will happen to each and every one of us. We make situations more complicated when we add judgments to what happens.

Now keeping our judgements in check is easier said than done.

When something great happens to us we want to celebrate, not necessarily knowing that catastrophe could be right around the corner because of this great thing.

Similarly something bad happens to us and all we can think about is the catastrophe that has befallen us, not necessarily knowing that it could be protecting us from something worse or opening us up to something better.

We cannot control what happens to us. We can control how we respond to what happens to us.

Our response is based on our judgement.

If we can look at the situation without assigning good or bad to it we have a fighting chance of coming out better on the other side.