A Black boy worked as a watchman for oak barrels in his father’s winery. Every morning, he carefully wiped each barrel clean and arranged them in neat rows. What frustrated him was that overnight, the wind would often blow the barrels he had carefully arranged into disorder. The boy felt so upset that he cried.
His father gently patted his head and said, “Child, don’t be sad. We can find a way to conquer the wind.”
After thinking for a long time, the boy finally came up with a solution. He fetched bucket after bucket of water from the well and poured it into the empty oak barrels. The next day, he found that all the barrels were standing firmly in place, none of them overturned by the wind.
The boy happily told his father, “To keep the barrels from being blown over by the wind, we need to increase their own weight.”
Indeed, we may not be able to change the wind or the world around us, but we can change ourselves and strengthen our inner weight and resilience. In this way, we can stand firmly in life without being easily knocked down. Adding weight to oneself is the only way not to be overturned by the winds of life.