PEBBLE

There is a very old story about a kind farmer who fell on hard times and became at the mercy of an evil moneylender. The old moneylender thought the farmer's daughter very beautiful and proposed a settlement. He would forgive the farmer's debt if he could marry his daughter. The moneylender proposed a game of chance to determine the outcome and the farmer and daughter could do little else but agree.

The moneylender told them he would put a black pebble and a white pebble in a bag and if the girl drew out a black pebble, she would have to marry the moneylender. If she drew out a white pebble, she would remain with her father and the debt would be free and clear.

The evil moneylender bent down to the pebble-strewn pathway and picked up two pebbles. The alert farmer's daughter noticed he had shamelessly picked up two black pebbles and put them in the bag. He then asked her to pick a pebble out.

Imagine you were the person standing there. What would you have done? How would you have advised her? Three possibilities exist --- refuse to play, but then her father would be thrown in jail --- go ahead and pick out a black pebble and sacrifice herself for her father --- up-end the bag and expose the moneylender and likely prompt his swift revenge.

Think about a situation you're in where everything seems hopeless - no way out. What do you do? Is there really only one option? Are there really only options A and B and no others? Here's what the girl did.

She put her hand in the bag and, without looking at the pebble or showing it to anyone, fumbled it and let it fall onto the pathway, where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.

'How clumsy of me,' the farmer's daughter said. 'But it's OK. We'll just look and see which pebble is left in the bag and that will tell us which one I picked.' And in a moment, the girl transformed what had been an impossible situation into an advantageous opportunity.

Most problems - even complex ones - have a solution --- if we just think beyond the choices that are most obvious.

And be blessed.