The Curious Puppy: A Beautiful Story About Self-Reflection
The story of the curious puppy is all about self-reflection. It begins in a wooded place far away. There in the depths of the forest was an abandoned house. A house no one seemed to have lived in for many years. The puppy noticed the house but was scared of it. He kept away from it for fear of finding something he wouldn’t like.
However, the puppy was curious. The next day he returned and went a little closer to the house, but didn’t dare to go in. The sun began to beat down and the temperature became unbearable. The puppy needed a place to hide from the hot rays.
After hesitating a bit, he decided to enter the house. The place was completely deserted. “Hello!” said the dog, but nobody answered him. In one of the corners there was a staircase, and he decided to approach. There didn’t seem to be anyone there, and he started to climb the stairs very carefully. This is when the story of the curious puppy takes a quite surprising turn…
“We make a living with what we receive, but we make a living with what we give.”
-John Maxwell-
An unexpected encounter
When the puppy got up the stairs, he came across a large living room. To his surprise, he found hundreds of puppies just like him! And they all seemed to be waiting for him.
The curious puppy was so happy. The other dogs seemed very friendly. That gave him confidence to raise his little paw and greet them. Everyone greeted him back instantly. The little dog gave a friendly bark, and the others did the same. “What a nice place!” thought the little dog. “I’ll come back whenever I can!”
The days went by and this time another dog arrived. This one was different; he was much more fearful and forewarned. He went through the same process as the first one. When he saw the house, he didn’t want to go near it. He was too afraid and stayed away from it.
The same place, a different encounter
The second dog saw that there were many nice places in the area. He decided to go back, but he always kept his distance from the abandoned house. However, one day there was a torrential downpour, and he had no choice; he had to enter the house.
Like the first dog, he entered through a hole that he dug. Once inside, he looked at everything very cautiously. In the background, he could see the stairs, but he didn’t go near them. Time passed and he got cold. He thought that if he went up to the second floor he may get a little warmer, and so he summoned up his courage and went up.
The dog got to the top and saw the same great hall. He sniffed around and it seemed the place was uninhabited. But then he too found hundreds of dogs just like him. He immediately got ready to attack, and the other dogs did the same. He barked aggressively and so did the others! The dog left the house as quickly as he could, saying to himself that he would never go back. “What a terrible place!” he thought.
He left so quickly that he failed to see an old sign on the floor. The sign said “House of Mirrors“. Neither the first puppy nor the second, had realized that all they had seen were reflections of their own images.
The moral of the story: self-reflection
The story of the curious dog shows us a truth that we often overlook. What we see in others is basically a reflection of ourselves. We receive from others basically what we give. Whoever relates to the world kindly receives kindness. And whoever does it aggressively will get aggression. The story is trying to teach us about the importance of self-reflection.
Human beings are genetically gifted with enormous sociability. We were born to live in groups; it is part of our biological and cultural composition. We may be selfish, but the group is always there on everyone’s horizon.
The rest of the group is an essential point of reference; they act as a “house of mirrors”. What we see in them has a lot to do with what we see in ourselves — just like in the story of the curious puppy.
When we have difficulties with the world, we should question ourselves, not the world. Is it the world that’s at fault? Or maybe we are the ones not relating very positively with it? The story of the curious puppy makes us wonder if it’s time for some positive self-reflection.
