Josiah wakes up one morning and discovers that he really enjoys everything about his life.  Upon getting out of bed he walks to his coffee pot and pours himself a cup.  As he pours teh cup he smells the aroma lifting from the dark liqued and it reminds him of winters with his family.  Parents and grandparents sitting and laughing talking about the world as they remembered it and enjoying the little momets that always brought them joy. 

Leaveing his cup of coffe and rememberences of winters gone by, he got dressed and started out on a hike he had planned through the forest that morning.  As Josiah walked through the trees, he remembered the times he had spent in this forest as a boy with his father.  Running and playing, listening to his father call out for him through the sun soaked forest.  For a moment he could hear his own laughter as a child and then relized he was laughing even now.    As our friend hiked further through the woods and deeper into his childhood memories, he was suddenly ripped from a memory fo a picnic only to realize he stood at the edge of a presipice.  A clif he had never noticed before but non the less stood there before him.  As he looked out over the cliff he saw the most beautiful forest vally.  Lush green trees that seemed to stretch out as far as the eye could see.  He heard birds singing and if he was not mistaken a large brown bear slowly making its way at the bottm of the cliff below him.  As he was taking in the view in front of him he heard the voice of a man behind him.  Turning around Josiah looked at the man quizatively.  "Pardon me" Josiah sad not understanding what the man said, as he was distrated by the view below.

"I said 'how's the view'" repeated the man

"The view is amazing" replied Josiah

The man responded "I have been coming to this cliff for years, and the view always looks beautiful, but once you see the forest down there close up you it cahnges."

"how so" asked Josiah

"You see what is beautiful from up here is not always beautiful when you meet it face to face.  Consider a lion.  A majestic creature, strong pround, a king among its peers.  However, standing as the lion's prey it is terrifying and  greusome.  So the once majestic creature becomes the terror of nightmares." the  man said.

"But isn't it in a lion's nature to hunt and to eat other animals?" asked Josiah

"It is" replied the old man "but the lion never pretends to be anything other than a lion.  Look again at your forest." 

looking again in the direction of the forest Josiah no longer saw the great beauty he once beheld instead he say a decaying wasteland filled with the stench of death.  Insteaqd of birds singing he heard crows and hyenas as they cackled.  Where he thought he had seen beauty lay only a nightmare.

"what happened to the forest that was so beautiful?" plaeded Josiah

"like many things that we think are wonderful and beautiful and good, they are only good for a moment.  Not all of life is so fical there are things that are pure and truely beautiful, those are the things you should strive to find."  After saying this the old man walked away, Josaih began to chase after him to ask another question, but could not find the old man anywhaere, and when he came back to where teh cliff had bee there was only an open plain. 

Bookmark: