This Too Shall Pass

There is a fable of a great king, who commands of a whole assembly of wise men: "make me a ring that can make me happy when I am sad, and sad when I am happy". The sages conferred, and after deliberating awhile, handed him a simple ring, unadorned except for four words etched into its surface: "This Too Will Pass". It had the desired effect.

In other versions of the tale, a great Sultan, wishing to test the wisdom of Solomon asks: "Oh wise Solomon, give me a sentence that will always be true, in both good time and in bad". And so Solomon responds: 'This Too Shall Pass Away."

This was a favourite story, one of many, that Abraham Lincoln often re-told, and Lincoln, who knew much of suffering said of those four simple words: "How much it expresses, how chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction."

And so, I shall tell this to myself: this too shall pass. Things will get better.