I have seen this story before, but it is easy to forget. I do not know who wrote it (if you search for it on the Internet it appears with a few slightly different versions, but no author).
A story tells of two friends who were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, she wrote in the sand:
“TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE”
They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but her friend saved her. After she recovered from the near drowning, she wrote on a stone:
“TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE”
The friend, who had slapped and saved her best friend, asked her, “After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand, and now, you write on a stone, why?”
The other friend replied: “When someone hurts us, we should write it down in sand, where the winds of forgiveness can erase it, but when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone, so no wind can ever erase it.”
LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND AND TO CARVE YOUR BLESSINGS IN STONE.
June 3rd, 2005 at 23:29
What a nice sentiment! Have to say I’m not so good about not writing the hurts in stone but reading this makes me re-commit to trying to write them in sand instead! Thanks for posting this :)
October 24th, 2005 at 15:03
[...] I just hope that I will always remember what goes in the sand and what goes in the stone. [...]