Many people alive today feel that the world owes them something simply because they exist. For those people, the lessons of life can be a bitter pill to swallow until they realize that life always gives you back what you give out! If you give out very little, you get back very little. If you give a lot, you get back a lot. To illustrate what I mean, read the following little story.

One day a man and his son were walking in the forest. Suddenly the boy tripped and upon feeling a sharp pain, screamed, “Ahhhhhh!”

To his surprise, he heard a voice coming from the mountain, “Ahhhhhh!”

Filled with curiosity, he screamed, “Who are you?” But the only answer he received was, “Who are you?”

This made him very angry, so he screamed again, “You are a coward!” And the voice answered back, “You are a coward!”

He looked at his father and asked, “Dad, what is going on?”

“Son”, the man replied, “Pay attention!”

Then he screamed, “I admire you!”

The voice answered, “I admire you!”

The father shouted, “You are wonderful!” And the voice answered, “You are wonderful.”

The boy was surprised, but still couldn’t understand what was going on. The father explained, “People call this ‘Echo’, but truly it is ‘Life’. Life always gives you back what you give out. Life is a mirror of your actions. If you want more love, give more love. If you want more kindness, give more kindness. If you want understanding and respect, give understanding and respect. If you want people to be patient and respectful to you, give patience and respect. This rule of nature applies to every aspect of our lives. Life always gives you back what you give out. Your life is not a coincidence, but a mirror of your own doings.”

What a tremendous lesson. One, unfortunately, which is learned very late in life. If you want to achieve success, you must aim high and work towards your goals. You must not let failure get in your way or discourage you, but instead be mindful of the opportunities that come up while you are on your journey. If you do nothing, these opportunities will not come your way. If you put something out, it will come back.

For example, to illustrate this point, consider the  two brothers who decided to dig a deep hole behind their house. As they were working, a couple of older boys stopped by to watch. “What are you doing?” asked one of the visitors.

“We plan to dig a hole all the way through the earth!” one of the brothers volunteered excitedly.

The older boys began to laugh, telling the younger ones that digging a hole all the way through the earth was impossible. After a long silence, one of the diggers picked up a jar full of spiders, worms and a wide assortment of insects. He removed the lid and showed the wonderful contents to the scoffing visitors. Then he said quietly and confidently, “Even if we don’t dig all the way through the earth, look what we found along the way!”

Sure, the goal of the younger brothers was far too ambitious, but the goal helped them start digging. And once they started digging, they discovered a lot of wonderful things along the way. We can all take a lesson from the brothers. While not all of our goals will be achieved; nor every job end successfully; nor every relationship be strong; nor every hope come to pass; nor every love last; nor every dream be realized; we can all take heart in the fact that we will certainly find many great things along the way all because we tried to do something.

As we go about our business during the next several days, let us all remember the “Echo of Life”. Life always gives back what you give out!