>The Old Man and His Shoe > >One day an old man boarded a bus. As he was going up the steps, one of his >shoes slipped off. The door closed and the bus moved off so he was unable >to retrieve it. The old man calmly took off his other shoe and threw it out >of the window. > >A young man on the bus saw what happened, and could not help going up to >the old man and asking, "I noticed what you did, sir."Why did you throw out >your other shoe?" The old man promptly replied, "So that whoever finds them >will be able to use them." The old man in the story understood a >fundamental philosophy for life - do not hold on to something simply for >the sake of possessing it or because you do not wish others to have it. > >We lose things all the time. The loss may seem to us grievous and unjust >initially, but loss only happens so that positive changes can occur in our >lives. We should not always assume that losing something is bad, because if >things do not shift, we'll never become better people or experience better >things. That's not to say of course that we only lose "bad" things; it >simply means that in order for us to mature emotionally and spiritually, >and for us to contribute to the world, the interchange between loss and >gain is necessary. > >Like the old man in the story, we have to learn to let go. The world had >decided that it was time for the old man to lose his shoe. Maybe this >happened to add momentum to a series of events leading to a better pair of >shoes for the old man. Maybe the search for another pair of shoes would >lead the old man to a great benefactor. Maybe the world decided that >someone else needed the shoes more. > >Whatever the reason, we can't avoid losing things.The old man understood >this. One of his shoes had gone out of his reach. The remaining shoe would >not have been much help to him, but it would be a cherished gift to a >homeless person desperately in need of protection from the ground. > >Hoarding possessions does nothing to make us or the world better.We all >have to decide constantly if some things or people have run their course in >our lives or would be better off with others.We then have to muster the >courage to give them away.