A boy was born to a couple after 11 years of marriage. They were a loving couple and the boy was the apple of their eye. When the boy was around two years old, one morning the husband saw a medicine bottle open. He was late for work so he asked his wife to cap the bottle and keep it in the cupboard. His wife, preoccupied¹ in the kitchen, totally forgot about the matter. The boy saw the bottle and playfully went to the bottle and fascinated by its color, drank it all. It happened to be a poisonous medicine meant for adults in small dosages. When the child collapsed², the mother hurried him to the hospital, where he died. The mother was stunned³. She was terrified how to face her husband. When the distraught father came to the hospital and saw the dead child, he looked at his wife and uttered just four words.

QUESTIONS:

What were the four words? What is the implication of this story?

ANSWER:

The husband just said, “I Love You Darling.” The husband’s totally unexpected reaction is proactive behavior. The child is dead. He can never be brought back to life. There is no point in finding fault with the mother. Besides, if only he had taken time to keep the bottle away, this would not have happened. No one is to be blamed. She had lost her only child. What she needed at that moment was consolation⁴ and sympathy from the husband. That is what he gave her. If everyone can look at life with this kind of perspective, there would be much fewer problems in the world. Take off all your envies, jealousies⁵, unforgiving attitude, selfishness, and fears. And you will find things are actually not as difficult as you think. “A successful relationship requires falling in love many times — with the same person.”