By Valea
Rehana and Saleem had accompanied their parents to their relatives’ home in a village. They hadn’t spent their summer holidays in a more enjoyable way before! The children did many fun things. What they enjoyed most was their early morning walk to a little lake nearby. That year, the rains had been abundant, and so the lake was full, attracting many water-birds, who had made it their temporary home.
Living in a city, the children hadn’t seen such birds before. There were herons and ducks and different types of storks! As soon as the children had drunk their morning milk, they would skip off to the lake to watch the birds, returning an hour later, in time for breakfast.
One morning, when Rehana and Saleem got to the lake, guess what they saw? A pair of giant pelicans with the biggest beaks they had ever seen! The children were so excited! They silently watched the pelicans as they silently paddled about in the lake, stopping occasionally to push their beaks in the water and scoop up a frog or a fish. Rehana and Saleem were spellbound by the sight!
After a while, breaking the silence, Rehana came up with a lovely idea. “Papa says that one can learn lessons from everything in life,” she said. “So, let’s try to think of what lessons we can draw from the pelicans.”
“Wuppy! That sounds interesting!” said Saleem.
“Okay, here’s one lesson we can learn,” Rehana began. “The pelicans are busy doing their own work, busily wading through the water and searching for food. They aren’t affected by what the other birds in the lake are doing. Like them, we too should focus on our duties, and should not interfere in other people’s affairs. Also, we mustn’t let what other people may do or say cause us to deviate from our work.”
“Wow, those are some great lessons we can learn from the pelicans!” Saleem said. “Ok. Now my turn. Here’s another lesson: The birds don’t seem worried at all. See how relaxed and peaceful they are, even though they don’t know if they are going to get any food today or not! They just do what they need to, and God provides for them. In the same way, we too should do what we have to and know that God will take care of our food and other such things.”
“My goodness, Saleem! You sound so grown up! You are so right!” Rehana responded. “Such a nice point you’ve made!”
“It’s such fun to draw lessons from things around us, isn’t it!”, Saleem said to his sister.
“Yes, yes! It isn’t just at school or from books that we can learn things,” Rehana added. “I heard somewhere that life itself is a big school and that one can learn useful lessons from every experience that we go through and every single thing that we may see!”
“Just like we learnt so many things from the pelicans today!” Saleem chimed in.
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