The Rooster Teaches Me Humility!

I have a little wooden rooster that sits on a step stool in the kitchen. I’ve had it for years. Unfortunately, dogs, kids, people, mops, etc., have knocked this little rooster over numerous times. Each time its crest has broken off, it has to be glued back on. Perhaps, it’s the placement of the rooster; I don’t know. What I do know is that I’ve never knocked it over myself.

One day, while I was in the kitchen, I opened one of the drawers, and there I found the crest, just sitting there. I looked down at the rooster, and sure enough, it was missing its headpiece! “What the . . .?” Someone had broken it, put the piece in the drawer, and hadn’t said a word about it.

I took the crest and the rooster, and gave it to my dad (he used to fix everything for me), the one man who’d put the rooster back together all the times it has been broken. He just looked at me and said, “Again?” I explained that some guilty party had broken it but hadn’t said a word about it; just put the crest in a drawer. As if it wouldn’t be found.

After some investigative work, the “culprit” confessed. It had just been an accident, of course, like all the other times. I explained to the culprit that I’d never knocked the rooster down and that I was always aware of my surroundings. Yes, I was quite smug about it, I’m sorry to say. But the next day, I was reminded, in a very humorous way, about our humanity.

I was making breakfast the very next day and my arm caught on an aluminum coffee mug and it got knocked down to the floor. Fortunately, it didn’t break. But it so happens, it was the culprit’s coffee mug, and she was standing right there to see it.

We both laughed about it. But despite the humor in the incident, I gleaned a lot more. It was like the Universe was telling me, “So, you’re always aware of your surroundings, heh? We’ll show you you’re not!”

I was grateful for this incident. The rooster had been put back together, but I was reminded that we all break things, or knock things over. We’re all prone to making mistakes. It is humbling to be reminded. And I’m grateful.

Let us remember to be humble, and to understand that humility is a great virtue, one we should practice daily.