Story About a Mouse

There once was a mouse named Jenca. She dreamed of doing something great, but didn't know exactly what that great thing would be. She began looking at her skills, abilities and resources then tallied them all up. Then she frowned and with a deep sigh asked, "But I'm so small, how can I do great things if I'm too small to be seen?"

Jenca began to pace back and forth as she pondered her situation. After many hours she decided that she would pack her bag and set off into the world to find something great to do. She started out on her journey and came upon another mouse that lived a couple holes down from her, named Shirax. Shirax asked, "Jenca, where are you off to?" Jenca smiled and said, "I'm off to do great things!" Shirax chuckled as he asked, "Well, before you go could you look at my computer? The cat won't move the little arrow on my screen like it use to." Jenca smiled, and said, "Sure, I would be glad to." Shirax and Jenca went inside and Jenca sat down at Shirax's computer. Jenca punched a few keys, inserted a disk, hit a few more keys and the restarted the computer. Jenca moved the cat and sure enough the pointer glided across the screen. She then told Shirax, "You shouldn't have any more problems with it." Shirax smiled happily as he turned to a shelf and pulled down a wooden box. He opened it and pulled out a small cloth bag, which he handed to Jenca as he said, "here, this might help you on your journey." Jenca graciously accepted it, but as she opened the small cloth bag and pulled out an old tarnished compass, she said, "this looks really old, I can't take something that looks to be of great value from you." Shirax explained, "You're right, it is old and is of some value, but as a family heirloom, it is worthless unless I pass it on to someone else." Shirax went on to say, "I have no children so I have no family to pass it on to, and you are the closest thing I have to family so I ask that you take it as a gift and use it wisely on your journey." Jenca thought for a moment then with a humble smile said, "As a gift I can accept it, and I give you my word that I will not only use it wisely, but will also cherish it always." They said their goodbyes, and Jenca set off once more on her journey in search of something great to do.

After some time, Jenca came upon a hamster who was looking confused as she stared at a map. Jenca greeted the hamster and asked, "Is there anything I can do to help you?" The hamster sighed as she explained, "I know where I want to go, but I can't figure out which way is southeast."

Jenca thought for a moment then pulled the small cloth bag from her backpack and carefully removed the compass. Jenca was startled as she looked at it and discovered the word "greatness" printed on it and the little arrow pointing to it. Jenca frowned as she told the hamster, "I'm sorry, I can't help you, my compass seems to be broken." The hamster paused then asked, "Maybe you can still help. Could you look at my map and see if you can tell which way I should go?" Jenca said, "Sure, I can take a look." The hamster handed her map to Jenca who was startled once again to see that an "X" had been placed on the map with the word "Greatness" printed beside it. Then as Jenca further studied the map, she realized that the "X" was right where her neighborhood was. Jenca smiled as she handed the map back to the hamster and said, "I can help you after all, it seems that your map leads to my neighborhood, and that my compass may not be broken after all." The hamster asked, "Why do you say your compass may not be broken after all?"

Jenca handed her compass to the hamster and said, "Take a look for yourself the map leads to greatness and my compass points to greatness." The hamster looked at the compass and chuckled as she handed it back to Jenca.

Jenca said, "I can take you there if you would like me to, I know the way very well." The hamster smiled happily and agreed to take Jenca up on her offer. Off they went, Jenca still searching for great things to do, and the hamster searching for greatness.

As they neared Jenca's hole, they came upon Shirax who greeted them heartily. Shirax asked Jenca, "How goes the search for something great to do?"

Jenca frowned, as she told Shirax of her journey, and how she helped the hamster. Shirax thought for a moment and then asked, "I'm about to have lunch, and I have more then enough to go around, would the two of you like to join me?" Jenca and the hamster looked at each other, and then the hamster spoke up and said, "It would be a pleasure to join you."

The three of them went inside, and as they ate, Shirax spoke up and said, "You seem quiet Jenca." With a puzzled look on her face, Jenca said, "Well, it's just that I set out to do something great, but wasn't able to, and from what I can tell, the hamster didn't find the greatness she was looking for, so in a sense we both failed to reach our goals."

Shirax thoughtfully said, "Well, the way I see it is that you both reached your goals. Jenca, aside from fixing my cat, you took time to help a stranger which, in my opinion was the greatest accomplishment anyone could ever do. Hamster, you sought greatness, which you achieved by sharing your map and most importantly began to develop a friendship with a total stranger which made you the greatest you could ever be." Shirax went on and explained, "You see, each of you went searching for something you had all along, but weren't able to see until someone else drew those things out of each of you."

Shirax and the Hamster sat silently for a moment then slowly looked at each other and began whooping and hollering in celebration of their newly discovered gifts.

The Hamster decided to move to Jenca's neighborhood, and along with Shirax, the three of them shared many wonderful days from that point on, while never forgetting the lessons learned from that first journey of greatness where they first met.