A Big Quiet House

A Yiddish Folktale from Eastern Europe

There was once a man who wished his small, noisy house was larger and quieter. He went to the wise old woman of the town and explained his need.
She said, "I can solve your problem. Just do as I say."

The man agreed. "If you have a chicken, some sheep, a horse, and a cow," she said, "bring them into the house with you."

"That's a silly thing to do," thought the old man. But he did it anyway. Now his house was already small, and with all those animals in it, there was no room at all. He returned to the old woman and cried, "I need more room! The animals are so noisy I can't think!"

"Take all those animals out of your dwelling," she replied. When he had put all the animals comfortably back in the barn, the man went into his house. To his amazement, it suddenly looked remarkably bigger! Without the animals inside, his house was now quiet too!

We had an amazing week with Saki and Mai ... our world is both bigger and smaller now. The kids learned so much about hospitality, love, patience, kindness, and being a friend. They taught us a little Japanese, they introduced us to Japanese comics (manga), and we practiced our oragami together. And, as their bus left on Saturday morning Justin said (exact quote!), "I miss they. Now I will never have friends again." He did get over his sadness rather quickly, but we are all left with the knowledge that we made some dear friends that we may only see again via the internet (Mai's mom has a blog too, isn't that cool!).

And, as in the Yiddish folk tale quoted above ... after inviting two extra children into our home, our house is suddenly quieter and remarkably bigger than it ever was.