The Perfect Peace

Once upon a time there was a king who offered a great prize to that artist who could capture in a picture the perfect peace.

Many artists tried. The king observed and admired all the pictures, but only there were two that he really liked and he had to choose one of them.

The first one was a very peaceful lake. This lake was a perfect mirror where some placid mountains that surrounded it were reflected. Above them was found a sky of pure blue with tenuous white clouds. All who saw this painting thought that this one reflected the perfect peace.

The second painting also had mountains. But these ones were open and rugged. On them there was a furious sky from which fell a impetuous downpour with thunder and bolts. Downhill seemed to resound a foamy torrent of water. All of this did not reveal in the least the peacefulness. But when the king observed carefully, he saw through the cascade a delicate bush growing in a rock crevice. In this bush was found a nest. There, in the midst of the roaring of the violent water fall, was placidly sat a little bird in the middle of its nest... perfect peace.

The king chose the second one. Do you know why? The king explained, "Peace does not mean to be in a place without noise, without problems, without hard work and without pain. Peace means that despite of being in the midst of all these things we remain calm within our heart. This is the true meaning of peace."