Nothing and Everything

For about a week now at bedtime, I've been telling the boys stories with the common theme of "nothing."  Some have been short, some have been long, some have been funny, others just plain old weird, but all of them have had nothing in them.  We've done rounds of stories, all of us taking a turn and telling a story with the common thread of "nothing."  We haven't gotten tired of this yet. 

Well tonight, Anna put the boys to bed and she continued the theme.  Here is her story:

One day, a mother took her son to a door, opened it, and yelled, "Surprise!"  The boy looked around the big empty room and then back at her with a puzzled look on his face and said, "The room is empty, there is nothing in here." 

She looked at her son and said - "It's either nothing or it's everything."  Her son didn't understand. 

She took him on a journey to visit a wise man.  They walked for two days and two nights, they climbed over two hills until they reached the old man's house.  He welcomed the boy into his home and when the boy came through the door, he looked around and saw that the room was empty except for a straw mat on the floor in the middle of the room.  The boy was invited to sit down and he sat across from the old man on the straw mat.  The old man looked at the boy and said "Look around this room, you can have anything you want."  The boy looked at the old man and said, "There is nothing in here, except a straw mat, you, and me."    "Well, said the old man, it is either nothing or it is everything."  The boy looked again confused, so the old man continued.  "If you wanted a pet monkey, or one hundred golden rings, or a bowl of bananas, you could look around this room and say it has nothing, because it doesn't have the things you want.  If there is always something that you want that you don't have, you'll always have nothing.   But if you came into this room wanting nothing, then everything you want is here.  It is in wanting nothing that you have everything."

The boy and his mother returned home.  His mother led him back to the room, opened the door and yelled "Surprise!"  The boy looked around and he noticed a window on one wall that was low down to the ground.  If he laid on his belly and looked out the window, he could see a stream with koi fish right beside the house.  He could hear the trickle of water.  When he looked at the other wall there was a tall vertical window, and if he stood in just the right place, he could see the peak of a tall mountain covered in snow.  When he walked over and touched the other two walls that were made of bamboo, he could feel the smooth bumps of the growth rings along the warm wood.   He looked at his mother and said "Thank you for everything."

Anna left the boys after the story to fold laundry.  When she returned a bit later and kissed them goodnight, Kuba called her back as she was leaving.  Anna leaned over to him and he whispered to Anna - "I have everything." 

He asked Anna if this was a real story or a made up one and she told him it was made up.  He told her it was so good she should it share it and maybe she would become president. 

Nothing more to add.