Once there was a king who grew so spoiled that he demanded all the chefs in his kingdom cook for him every day for 30 days to see who could make him the perfect food. Twenty-nine days passed and the king had 29 near-perfect meals. On the final day of the month, however, a frail monk showed up and declared he could no doubt give the king a perfect meal.
The monk showed up first thing in the morning, and he told the king to sit at the table and wait. The monk was in the kitchen for some time, and while he was gone, the king grew anxious and excited for what he was about to eat. The monk came out in a few hours with nothing, and he told the king to wait some more. The king did wait some more, but as he waited, he grew hungrier by the minute.
Finally, the end of the day approached. The king was so hungry that he couldn’t think. When the monk came out to the table, he handed the king a plate of plain, boiled rice. “Where is the rest of the food?” demanded the king angrily. The monk told him that there was no other food, and although this angered the king, he was so hungry from not eating that he ate up all the rice at once.
The king ate every grain of rice, and, after being as hungry as he had grown to be, he realized how delicious the rice actually was; in fact, he said, “For the hungry man, this is the most perfect food possible.”
The king had been swept up by greed until he learned the lesson of appreciation. It’s human nature for all of us to become greedy at times, however, and it’s understandable why we tend to get away from appreciating the times when we have access to fulfilling our most basic needs. Still, despite being understandable, is it really acceptable? That’s not a rhetorical, it’s an actual question: Is being unappreciative acceptable for you?
If being unappreciative is not okay with you, then take a moment to express your gratitude. Express it to those who do things for you – anything for you. Express it to the universe. Express gratitude for even the smallest of things, and you might just be surprised to see how your gratitude can transform even the blandest bowl of proverbial rice in your life.
