Bedtime story...

This story is about a spider.
And this spider happen to be living at the top of a Buddhist monastery, weaving her web, living her life, and of cos, having very much nothing to do, listening to the scriptures and chants and the everything that's going on in the monastery.

So for a 1000 years(dun ask me why, its not possible but hey, it's a story right?), the spider was soaking in the positive essence and the knowledge = she becoming a rather wise spider.
On the 1001st year of her existence, Buddha passed by the monastery and saw the spider, and seeing the spider being rather knowledgeable, asked her a question.
"So what do you think the most important thing in life is?" he asked.
The spider took some time to digest the question before finally replying: "That which you cannot get & that which you have lost."
Buddha just smiled and walked away.

One fine day, spider woke up to find a morning dew hanging on her spider web.
Enchanted by its beauty, the spider stared at morning dew and eventually grew to love it.
But alas!
A sudden gust of wind appeared out of nowhere to blow the morning dew away, and spider was devastated!
However, she managed to get over her grief and normalcy began to settle....

On the 2001st year, Buddha passed by the monastery again, and seeing the spider still in the monastery, asked her the same question.
"So what do you think the most important thing in life is?"
The spider took some time to digest the question like before, but her reply was still the same.
"That which you cannot get that which you have lost."
Buddha smiled again and said "I'll send you to the mortal world to find out."

*Poof*

The spider was reincarnated into a human girl, who grew up to be pretty, wise and incredibly talented.
Eventually, when she reached a marriageable age, she fell in love with a scholar.
Sadly, fate intervened with a cruel twist of fortunes and the man she loved was summoned by the Emperor to marry his beloved daughter princess while spider was betrothed to the majesty's one and only son, Prince X.
Spider was heartbroken even though Prince X loved her dearly.
Her heart was with the scholar, and the thought of them being relatives instead of lovers was too much for her mortal heart to bear.

She went on a downward spiral.
She couldn't eat, drink or sleep. And before long, instead of looking like some supermodel, she became bedridden.
Prince X on the other hand, was going mad.
He visited her constantly, and seeing Spider's life about to expire, began to despair and contemplated taking his own life should his one true love never can get to see the light of another day.
One day, Prince X felt death calling out to his beloved spider and lost it.
He whipped out his royal sword, lifted up his arm, aimed at his own throat and started to plunge the sword into what will be the end of his existence!

Just when the tragedy was about to strike.
Time stood still.
Buddha appeared in front of Spider, and said to her: "The scholar was the morning dew that landed on your web. The princess was the wind that whisked the morning dew away from your web. And the prince, he was the blade of grass outside the monastery that stared at you for 2000 years and fell in love with you."
"So what is the most important thing in life?"

"It is now.", Spider replied.

Buddha smiled, and proceeded to disarm Prince X.

The last I've heard, Prince X and Spider was married and they lived happily ever after.

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Thanks to Kevin Wee for sharing this story with me.

I've learnt to realise that what is important is not the past that has that which you cannot get or what you have lost, but the present that we may be too blind to see and treasure.
Whatever happened in the past is gone, dead and buried.
And rightfully so.
Whatever happens in the future is an unknown, one moment its there, another moment the wind might just come and whisk it all away.
So why don't I start living the now and treasure what I have instead of harping on the past and spend needless time speculating about the future?
Does the past really matter?
I'm going to try to let some things slide.
And plant both my feet firmly in the present.
The future, well... we can plan for it but not everything will go according to plan, does it?

Most importantly, I don't wanna turn you into a monument of the past and start to worship you with the flowers of regret.
No more what ifs.