Category : Articles

Sub Category : Miscellaneous

There is a story of a woman in a big city who came to her best friend with a troubled conscience. Her best friend, who happens to be a deep thinker and wise, knew her to be a habitual gossiper who had something horrible to say about most people in her life and even strangers she's crossed paths with. 

"How can I make amends?" she pleaded. 

Her best friend replied, "If you truly want to feel regret for what you have done, then take a bag of feathers and climb up to the rooftop of your condominium. When you get up there, let loose all the feathers and watch them fly away."

The woman thought it was a very odd thing for him to suggest that to her as she couldn't see how it would help her make amends for all the wrongs she had done. But because she doesn't have a better idea and also because she has a lot of faith in his wisdom, she heads down to IKEA where she buys herself the fattest feather pillow she could find. After paying for her purchase, she rushes home, swings by her condo unit to grab a pair of scissors and then she takes the elevator up to the roof top. 

The roof top was empty when she got up there; something she was thankful for as she wouldn't know how to explain about what she was going to do. She walks to the edge of the wall, sits on the floor and began cutting the top side of the pillow case. While she was doing that she noticed that the wind was picking up speed. Once the cutting task was done, she stands at the edge of the wall, holds the pillow case over the wall and lets the feathers loose. 

"Now what?" she asks herself. She still cannot see the connection between letting the feathers loose to her making amends, so she heads over to meet her best friend again. 

"I've done what you asked me to do. Is that all?"

He nods his head at her. "Good," he said. "Now you must go and gather up every single feather and bring them back to me."

She looks at him in disbelief to see if he was pulling her leg but there was no sign at all of such thing. Confused, she went on her way to tackle her next task. 

Three days later the woman comes to her best friend again without a single feather. "The wind has blown them all away," she said. 

He looks her in the eye and said, "I know. In the same way it is with gossip. Unkind words are easily dropped but we can never take them back again, and their whispers travel far and wide."

Before we open our mouth to speak, check the facts. Before we open our mouth to respond, check our words. Before we judge others, judge ourselves first.