Once upon a time, there was a beautiful peacock who lived in the jungle. Every morning and evening he would go near the water body to have water and to take in the soft and cold breeze as it was very hot in the afternoons during the summers. It felt to him that the summers had lasted forever and honestly, he was getting quite tired of the heat.
One fine morning, just like every day, while he was on his way to the water body, he looked up at the sky and could see the clouds coming nearby. Full of joy and hope for finally getting rid of the scorching sun, the peacock spread his feathers and started to dance in happiness. Just as he reached the water body, it began to pour, such beautiful thick water droplets, ah! What a great day, he thought to himself.
While the peacock was still feeling joyous and dancing all around near the lake in the rain, he heard a nightingale singing nearby. Oh, such a sweet voice she has, thought the peacock happily. Let me sing along with her. Thinking that the peacock too started singing, but just as he did, he realized that his voice was not as nice as the nightingale, in fact, it wasn’t nice at all to sing. This upset him badly and he began to think what was the point of such beautiful weather if he could not even sing along with the nightingale.
Face to face with his shortcomings, the peacock stopped dancing and went and sat in a corner, it seemed that all of a sudden, all the reasons for his happiness has disappeared and instead had made not only his mood foul but also aware of his weaknesses.
A couple of days passed and again one day when he was near the water body, it began to pour, but he was still so upset that even the beautiful weather was not enough to lift up his spirits. Standing by the small river, he again heard the nightingale sing, but he was so immersed in his own complex and inferiorities that even the sweet sounds didn’t sound pleasant to him, but felt as if the nightingale was poking fun of him by singing in her sweet voice.
How dare she! He thought to himself, I shall go and meet her and tell her that this is not the right way to behave with others. He waited for the rain to stop and when it did, he went to her and told her,” we all know that you have a beautiful voice but there is no need to show it off by singing so sweetly and reminding others that they can’t sing. How terrible of you!”
The nightingale looked at the peacock with a smile full of compassion and understanding. “My dear peacock”, she said, “I was only singing because I was happy in the rains and not to show anyone that I could sing. If you felt bad because of me then please accept my apologies. But my dear friend can I tell you something”. “Go ahead” said the peacock.
“We all have our share of our strengths and weaknesses. If I can sing well then you have a beautiful body and feathers, What I am trying to say is that each and every one of us is blessed with different gifts in life and we should be very thankful for the same”. Looking at her and hearing her talk, peacock realized that she was indeed right, agreed that he could not sing but he had been blessed with not just a beautiful body but also the most exquisite feathers
He realized his mistake, apologized to the nightingale for his rudeness and accepted the fact that instead of feeling bad about what we don’t have, we should ways be thankful for what we do have.
