To Be Pretty

She said I want to be beautiful. But it’s hard to be beautiful, he replied.

So a couple of months ago sitting on the couch, drowning myself with a series of procrastinating self-talk and scrolling through all the screens I could, I read this little story which eventually changed a lot of things I experience now.

The story goes like this: 
A log of wood once saw its appearance in the water. She became all sad about the bad looks, unshaped ends, shabby front and the dark back it got. She felt dejected and vexed.

Listening to all the other people, and the wounds they gave her ears she felt so irritated and bad that she decided to change herself.

The next thing she did was to visit a carpenter. She asked the carpenter to make her beautiful. It’s hard to be beautiful, he replied.

The log was determined to cross any obstacle that was to come her way. So the carpenter started his work with the hammer and his other tools. The log screamed hard. This could only be continued for an hour, after which the log said it was enough for that and she couldn’t bear it any longer.

Days passed by, the log kept screaming and screaming hard and the carpenter continued his work. After a long passage of time, the carpenter stopped hammering the log. The log felt pretty and the hard work and pain she endured finally paid off.

The moral of the story is that to be pretty is hard, to be happy is hard, you can’t do nothing and be happy and pretty. Your actions define everything.

-REET KAUR