Maybe is the only answer we can fully trust

​Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away. That evening, all of his neighbors came around to commiserate. They said, “We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away. This is most unfortunate.” The farmer said, “Maybe.”

The next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and in the evening everybody came back and said, “Oh, isn’t that lucky. What a great turn of events. You now have eight horses!” The farmer again said, “Maybe.”

The following day his son tried to break one of the horses, and while riding it, he was thrown and broke his leg. The neighbors then said, “Oh dear, that’s too bad,” and the farmer responded, “Maybe.”

The next day the conscription officers came around to conscript people into the army, and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg. Again all the neighbors came around and said, “Isn’t that great!” Again, he said, “Maybe.”

~Alan Watts

Maybe.

It's such a hard reality to accept, but it is the reality of life.

Maybe.

So many bad things that have happened in my life that I now know were actually good.

So many good things that have happened in my life that I now know were actually bad.

Or maybe they weren't good or bad at all. Maybe they were just quite simply things that happened that have shaped my life.

Maybe feeling pressured to label something good or bad is something that distorts our shapes more than anything else does. Maybe by deciding in a moment that something is good or bad, right or wrong, fair or unfair, maybe that robs me of learning what the moment arrived to teach me.

Maybe that is what robs a moment of its chance to become a most beautiful opportunity.

Maybe we turn our noses up at blessings because they look like curses; maybe we let our lives get carried away by blessings that
will one day be exposed as curses.

Maybe.

There is a comfort in discovering how wrong I have often been about yes and no. There is a comfort in discovering that I have been equally deceived by, and often, by good and bad. There is a comfort in knowing this leaves only one logical answer.

Maybe.

Maybe this works out, maybe it doesn't; the key to life might just be continuing to work out life without having to know the answer. Because in the end, we never really know if we are embracing the answer, or a lie.

Maybe.