Once upon a time, there lived a king who loved decorated walls.
Each room of his palace was painted except for the great Hall, which had marble walls.
The king summoned the greatest artists in his kingdom and chose one of them to have the North wall of the Hall decorated.
On the same day, a stranger showed up at the palace too.
He pleaded with his king to give him the chance to decorate the South wall of the Hall.
“What would you like to paint?”, the king asked.
“Your Majesty, the Hall is perfectly symmetrical, so, I am going to make a replication of the painting the artist will make, and without looking at it”, the stranger replied.
The king was dubious and intrigued at the same time, but in the end, he decided to give the stranger the opportunity to show his talent.
He ordered a panel to be placed between the North and the South walls to make sure the stranger could not see the artist’s work.
The artist and the stranger started working on the walls they had been assigned.
The former was equipped with oils, paints, and brushes, while the latter worked just with a bucket of water and a cloth.
In less than one month the first artist reached out to the king and said: ”Your Majesty, the wall is ready”.
The king was pleased to hear the news and asked the stranger: “When is your work going to be completed”?
“My work is completed too, your Majesty”, the stranger replied.
The king decided to inspect the wall painted by the artist first.
The king was amazed by such beautiful work and generously rewarded the artist for his great job.
Then, the king commanded his subjects to remove the panel to see if the stranger had kept his promise to make an exact copy of the artist’s work without looking at it.
The king could not believe his eyes; on the South wall, there was a perfect copy of what was depicted on the North wall.
The stranger was rewarded in the same way as the artist, but the king asked him to reveal his secret.
“How did you manage to make the exact copy of the artist’s painting?”, the king asked the stranger.
“Your majesty, I am a humble shoe shine and I did what I am good at, i.e. I scrubbed and polished the marble wall every day till it sparkled like a mirror and it reflected the painting on the opposite wall”, the stranger replied.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The way we see the outer world depends on our inner world.
What we tell ourselves day in, day out, as well as the kind of thoughts we focus on, will affect our life experience.
“Where attention goes, energy flows and results show”. - T. Harv Eker
It’s of paramount importance to become aware of our inner dialogue and then switch our negative mind to a positive one.
If we keep focusing on the negative chatter of the mind it can only increase.
How can we stop it?
By engaging our mind in positive activities, e.g. hanging out with positive people, reading, listening and watching positive stuff, meditating, etc.
In doing so our mind gets rid of the negative thoughts and becomes cleaner.
The beautiful painting we have created within ourselves will finally be mirrored outside.
People will see the best version of us.
Remember: everything starts and originates in our mind, both good and bad stuff.
It’s up to us to be responsible to polish and take care of our mind, our inner world in order to reflect and mirror the beauty of it in the world around us.
“Your outer world is a reflection of your inner world.” -T. Harv Eker
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I thought it was a mirror from the way he explains to the King about making a perfect copy 🙂
A good story though, thank you for sharing !