One day while he was standing around daydreaming, he stood there with a blank look on his face, oblivious to all of the other busy mice around him when an old mouse ran into him. The old mouse said, "Why are you standing about doing nothing when there is so much to be done? What kind of mouse are you anyway?" But before the little Mouse could answer, the old mouse grumbled off, leaving him looking at what had just happened. As he was contemplating these events, another mouse came up and said, "Have you been asleep again? You are standing about doing nothing! What a worthless mouse you are!"

Little Mouse quickly said, "I am not worthless! One day I will do a great deed. I am just waiting for that day."

The other mouse scoffed at Little Mouse and walked away shaking his head. Little Mouse said to himself, "One day I will show them, but right now I am tired and do need a nap." For you see, Little Mouse had a lazy streak, too. So off he went to his lodge for a nap. When he awoke, there was a great fire blazing in the door of his lodge! Little Mouse was afraid and his heart was caught in his throat. "I will be burned alive!\" he thought. "I must do something quick!"

So he grabbed his blanket wrapping it around him, he put his little tail in the air and ran into the flames! He ran as hard and fast as he could, and when he thought he was through the flames at last, he stopped and began to see if he was burned. He checked every inch of his fur, but none of it was burned.

He became excited thinking, "I ran through fire! I ran through a great fire and didn't even get burned! Truly then, I must be a great Mouse!\"

But when he turned to look at the flames, he saw they were only sunbeams that came through the doorway. "How could I have been so silly?" he asked himself. "I thought those sunbeams were flames. I am not a great Mouse, just a silly one."

Hurt and embarrassed, he set off to find a place to rest. After while, he came upon a great lake. He thought to himself, "This is the biggest lake I have ever seen! If I were to swim across this lake, no one could say I was worthless again!" So into the water he went. He paddled and paddled, until at last he reached the other side. He crawled from the lake shaking the water from his fur. Excited, he began jumping up and down! "I am truly a great Mouse! I swam the biggest lake in the world!" But when he turned to look at the lake, he saw that it was only a mud puddle. "How can this be?" he asked. "Oh no! How will anyone know what a great Mouse I am now? I\'ll never be a great Mouse."

And again, he went off feeling like a foolish Mouse. He went a short distance when he came upon a huge tree. Little Mouse looked up at the huge tree and could not see its top. "It is the biggest tree I have ever seen in my life! I know! I will chop it down, then everyone will know what a great Mouse I am!"

So he began chewing away at the trunk. He chewed and chewed, and finally with a great crash, the tree fell to the earth! Little Mouse did a victory dance, shouting \"I am truly a great Mouse! I have felled a giant and all must see what I have done!\" But when he turned to look at the tree, it was only a blade of grass. Little Mouse was crushed. \"This is too much! I ran through a fire that turned out to be a sunbeam. I swam a great lake that turned out to be a mud puddle. And now, I have chopped down a tree that turned out to be a blade of grass! How will I ever show anyone what a great Mouse I am?"

He stood there in a daze, wondering at all that had happened to him of late, but after a time he set of just wandering about. He came upon a mountain. He looked up at the mountain and said, "Brother Mountain, it is you who is truly great. I am but a small Mouse who is good for nothing but dreams."

He picked up a grain of sand from the mountain and held it in his tiny paw. He took this grain of sand a ways and laid it down, then went back to the mountain and picked up another one, bringing it back to the place he took the first. \"All I can do is dream and carry little grains of sand\", he said - not feeling very great.

Again and again, he carried sand from the mountain to the place he brought the first grain, all the while saying he was only capable of carrying an insignificant grain of sand. He did this until finally he went to the mountain and there was no sand left. The mountain was gone and all that could be seen were fields of grain! All the food the mice could ever eat! This food had been hidden by the mountain which Little Mouse had moved! He truly was a great Mouse!

* * *

Little Mouse teaches us that we can be great in our smallness.

This is being in humility and when we are in our True Power.

When we try to be larger and more important in a way determined by ego, we are actually \"small and insignificant.\"

We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.

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