If I Stay -- Gayle Forman

 




On a snowy day, Mia and her mother, Kat, her father, Denny, and her little brother, Teddy, decide to go for a morning drive. Not used to the snowy conditions, Denny loses control resulting in a terrible crash. When Mia awakens, she finds that she has detached from her body, which is barely holding on.


          She finds the bodies of her mother and father, who died from the crash. She also finds the body of herself, who is on the brink of death. Mia realizes that she is having an out of body experience, and follows her physical body to the hospital. She watches her extended family rush to take care of her, while her best friend Kim and her boyfriend Adam struggle to reach the hospital.

              Through her stay at the hospital, Mia reflects on her life, reminiscing about the development of her relationship with Adam, the development of her passion and talent for playing the cello, and the obstacles of being a teenager who feels out of place no matter where she goes. Mia goes back and forth between deciding whether to stay with her remaining family, as well as Adam, or whether to leave to be with her parents and Teddy, who have all passed on.  

       Her decision is almost made up to leave, until Adam finally reaches the room where her body is being held. He begs her to stay, and in that moment, she sees how her whole future would play out if she were to stay. And in that moment, she makes the decision to stay in the physical world, and she returns to her body.

The Elephant Rope

As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

                           He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”



 


                        The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.
Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before?

Moral:- Failure is part of learning; we should never give up the struggle in life.

An Elephant and the Tailor

Once an elephant was lived in village. He visited pond to take bath and then roaming in the village every day. He always visited a tailor’s shop and the tailor gave him something to eat. They both became friends.  One day as usual after bath he visited the tailors shop and put his trunk inside the shop. That time the tailor was not in good mood as he had a quarrel with a customer. So the tailor instead of giving something to eat pricked a needle into his trunk. The elephant silently went away.

 

                       

   Next day the elephant reached the river and took his bath. After that he filled muddy water in his trunk. On his way back he stopped at the tailor’s shop and threw all the muddy water on the clothes in the shop. All the clothes were destroyed. Tailor had to bear heavy loss.

Moral:- As you sow, so shall you reap.

The Thirsty Crow

One hot day, a thirsty crow flew all over the fields looking for water. For a long time, he could not find any. He felt very weak, almost lost all hope. Suddenly, he saw a water jug below the tree. He flew straight down to see if there was any water inside. Yes, he could see some water inside the jug!

                                        The crow tried to push his head into the jug. Sadly, he found that the neck of the jug was too narrow. Then he tried to push the jug to tilt for the water to flow out but the jug was too heavy.

The crow thought hard for a while. Then looking around it, he saw some pebbles. he suddenly had a good idea. he started picking up the pebbles one by one, dropping each into the jug. 

                   As more and more pebbles filled the jug, the water level kept rising. Soon it was high enough for the crow to drink. His plan had worked!

Moral:- Where there is a will, there is a way!

The Golden Goose

Once there was a farmer in a certain village. The Farmer had a strange goose that laid a golden egg every day. The farmer sold the egg and got much money every day. Soon he became very rich.

But the farmer was greedy. He wanted to become richer still. He was not satisfied with one egg a day.

                      One day he thought to himself, “My goose gives me only one egg every day. But if I cut open her belly, I shall get all the golden eggs at once. Then I shall be the richest man in this village.”
So thinking, the farmer killed the goose with a sharp knife. But alas! There was not a single egg in her belly.
The  farmer was very sad. He lost both the goose and the golden eggs.  

 

Moral:  Greed brings grief.

Two Silly Goats

Once upon a time there lived two silly goats in a village. They were just like any of the other goats, but they were both very vain and proud. Each of them thought themselves to be very great and thought the other to be lesser than them in every way. The two silly goats were so proud and vain that often their pride clouded their common sense.
   The village was a lovely one, and a beautiful river flowed past the village. There was a bridge for those who wanted to cross the river. But the bridge was very narrow. It was so narrow that only one person or animal could walk along the bridge at a time.
               One day they both happened to come to the opposite ends of the bridge at the same time. Although they saw each other at the opposite ends, they just continued to try to cross the bridge at the same time. Each in its own arrogance thought they it had the right of way and that the other goat should yield way. Naturally the silly goats met in the mAs the two silly goats started pushing and shoving each other, they got into a big fight right on the narrow bridge. They both fell down into the river.iddle of the bridge.
               

Each goat refused to budge. They both stood their ground, neither wanted to backtrack and make way for the other. "Hey, you," cried the first goat, "get out of my way. Don't you see I am trying to cross the bridge." "You silly fellow! Who do you think you are talking to. You make way for me at once," cried the second one. They yelled and traded insults. Soon they started pushing each other.
             As the two silly goats started pushing and shoving each other, they got into a big fight right on the narrow bridge. They both fell down into the river.

Moral :- Love your neighbours.
                 

The Hare and the Tortoise

 Once a hare was roaming near a lake in a forest. Suddenly he saw a tortoise and mocked at him saying - "Hurry up, you slow coach! Don't you find life very dull taking so long to cover a few yards? I could have run to the other side of the lake by now."

                       The tortoise felt teased and dared the hare to a race. The race was to be through the wood to a fixed goal. The hare agreed laughingly. In a few minutes he was away and out of sight.
                      

                        "What a funny race it is!" he said to himself , "I am already half -way through. But it is too-too cold; why not have a nap in the warm sunshine?"
The tortoise walked steadily on and on. In a short time, he passed by the sleeping hare.
The hare slept far longer then he had intended. When he woke up at last, he looked around in surprise and said to himself," Not even a sigh of the poor tortoise anywhere so far; I had better trot along and finish the race."
                           The hare ran to the goal. He was amazed to see all the animals cheering the tortoise who had arrived just a minute earlier. how ashamed he felt indeed!

MORAL : Slow and steady wins the race.