The Magic Eggs Story
Dealing with the inevitable losses of life
A Micro Story
There were once two little girls who were each given a basket of ten magical eggs.
Each night before they slept, they counted their eggs and felt a sense of joy and accomplishment. The consideration of their eggs lulled them to sleep.
At the end of the first year, their mother removed an egg from each of their baskets. On the second and every subsequent year, she did the same.
At the end of the fifth year, both girls began to notice a sharp decline in their number of magical eggs.
The elder daughter grew anxious and tried means and ways to retain her magical eggs but to no avail. Each year, an egg would be removed from her.
At the end of the sixth year, to salve her anxiety, the elder sister sought out artificial eggs and placed them in the basket with her existing eggs. The artificial eggs tainted her existing eggs and all her eggs were lost that year.
The younger daughter dealt with her losses graciously, acquiring a quiet detachment to her eggs. She loved them but did not cling on to them.
She stopped considering them every night before she slept. In their place, she filled her mind with thoughts of her generous mother.
At the end of the tenth year, at the departure of her last egg, the younger daughter was greeted with a strange sense of relief. She had grown wise and beautiful.
She realised that the eggs were never lost but had hatched into virtues deep within her soul.
On the flip side, the elder daughter had grown bitter and resentful. In her anger, she left their mother’s house and roamed around the world in pursuit of artificial eggs till the end of her days.
Introduction
The above is my amateur attempt at fiction. I am not entirely proud of it but it is a good illustration of a principle that I am trying to convey.
The little girls in the story are us — humans.
The mother in the story is God.
The eggs in the basket are the various ‘gifts’ that God has given to us.
When we are young, we have many ‘eggs’ in our baskets (i.e. physical beauty, strength and mental prowess).
As we age, these ‘eggs’ are gradually taken away from us. We lose our physical beauty, strength and mental prowess. Eventually, we become immobile and dependent on others.
Fortunately for most of us, God removes these ‘eggs’ from our lives gradually; Giving us the chance to acquire the graces we need to deal with these losses.
Sadly, many people, like the elder sister, try to evade these losses by artificially preserving their eggs (e.g. going for botox to delay physical ageing).
When they fail, they create artificial eggs to fill in the void (e.g. chasing after wealth, power, pleasure and honour).
Instead of accepting live’s losses, these people, like the elder sister, acquire distorted ways of coping. In so doing, they forfeit the other gifts given to them.
Conclusion
A recent miscarriage had drained me of much of my strength.
At the age of 31, I was confronted with a sudden onset of weakness and dependency. You could say that for a moment, God had removed many of my eggs.
My loss of physical strength was accompanied by a loss of mental resilience. I became depressed, paranoid and resentful.
I knew that this was not my ordinary state of mind. The grief, medication and blood loss was affecting me. There was little I could do (apart from observing the phenomenon from a distance — I will share this in greater detail in future articles).
In a way, I had stepped into a shoes of a much older lady; A lady who had lost much of her physical and mental health. It was not pleasant at all.
I realised that I was not yet ready to fill these big shoes.
Perhaps I will need another three or four decades to gain the wisdom and strength I need to live with little or no eggs.
I hope that God blesses me with a long enough life to do so.
In the meantime, I pray for the empathy and strength to be kind and loving towards the weak and elderly. Indeed, their lives are not easy at all.
“Therefore, we are not discouraged; rather, although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4: 16–18)
