Watching television the other night, I saw a show on the crazy activities people will take part in to attain their goals. A downcast brunette woman came on and explained that her doctors had told her she had a million in one chance of conceiving.After trying In vitro and every imaginable medical intervention, she turned to the ancient medicine of her Peruvian village.
The cameras followed her as she walked around the open air market, staring at pregnant women and lamenting her fate until she strode up to a booth behind a sign that read, “Jugo de Rana,” translated as “Frog Juice.”Speaking Spanish, she told the woman behind the counter from that day forward, she would be coming to the booth so the woman was to make her a smoothie to sate her needs.
At first, as I watched the show I was amazed at the behavior of the woman.Who in their right mind would drink blended frogs?Can one be so desperate to make their dreams come true that they would turn to something so vile?
And then I thought of my own life and the lives of my friends.On more occasions than I care to count, I have seen people pour their bodies and souls into projects/jobs/relationships and have been left beaten and betrayed with nothing to show for the pain they have endured to gain the fame/wealth/love they so desired.
One day, the brunette woman from Peru brought her husband to the booth and forced him to drink the green, gelatinous sludge.As he was about to take a sip, she looked at him and said:“Drink it fast.Otherwise, you will taste the bones.”
His face pinched with disgust as he poured the concoction into his mouth.
Then it struck me.In some point in everyone’s life, there is a goal we want more than anything.It may be to get pregnant.It may be to find our perfect mate.To make this dream come true we must have one thing…Faith.We must close our eyes and swallow the frogs and blindly hope that the sacrifice we are making will mean success.We must savor the distaste of the bones, for those bones are part of the price we must pay.
Faith does not mean we will succeed. However, it does mean we have tried.We have believed in ourselves, when no else does—when the doctor’s say ‘a million in one chance.’
At the end of the show, the woman and her husband were walking in the park.In front of them, was a stroller.Frogs, Faith, and Bones had brought their dream to life.