A story of a squirrel's adventure and paradigm shift There was once a squirrel who thought his tree was the forest's tallest, the acorns he gathered the forest's best. One day while the squirrel was out walking, the branch he was on broke and he fell into the river. When he got out and dried himself off, he noticed a tall tree that spread wide across the sky. Taller, it appeared, than his. Due to his fall, he couldn't walk all the way back home before dark, so he walked until he found an inn. The squirrels there were different than him, which made him uneasy. But they were friendly, and he was tired, so he stayed. In the morning for breakfast, they had acorns which were the best he'd ever tasted, roasted to perfection with such a rich flavour. They noticed he was injured, so they tended to him. He rested there another night and into the day following, then he left the inn. Just before reaching the crest of the hill, he looked back at the inn. He realized the inn he had stayed at, with the friendly hosts and tender care, was in the tree he had first seen after his fall. His tree was no longer the tallest, the tree with the inn was, with their acorns - the best he had ever tasted. Yet, he realized there may be a tree even taller, somewhere out there. He was no longer the best. Maybe he never had been. Strangely though, he found he didn't care he wasn't the best. Maybe, he thought, being the best wasn't all there was after all. |