How Paul the Lizard stopped worrying

Paul the Lizard lived in a dark corner but frequently lay out on some flat stone to sunbathe. He felt so relaxed when doing so, that more than once he fell asleep. That’s exactly what happened on the day he lost his tail: some kids caught him, and Paul could only escape by losing his tail and running away to safety. After the children had gone, Paul started looking everywhere for his tail, wanting to reattach it to its rightful place. However, the area was very big, and though he searched for it near and far, he found no trace of his tail. He left everything else he currently had in his life, devoting his time to the search. But one day, Paul turned and saw that after wasting so much time searching for his old tail, he had grown a new one. More so, his new tail looked much stronger and better than his old one. Seeing this, he realized how silly it had been to dedicate so much time to a problem which there had no solution. Paul turned back and headed for home.On his way home he found his old tail. It was dry and dusty, and looked really bad. However, Paul, having spent so much time looking for it, was happy to find it, and he picked it up and resumed his journey. Soon he met a frog. The frog, surprised, asked Paul, “Why are you carrying such a horrible old tail when you already have such a lovely new one?” “Because I spent months looking for it,” replied Paul.“You really spent months looking for something so ugly and dirty?” asked the frog. “Well,” Paul explained, “It wasn’t as ugly as this before.”“Hmm, but now it is, wouldn’t you agree? How strange you lizards are!” said the frog before jumping off into the distance.The frog was right. Paul still thought of his tail as though it was the same tail he used to have, but in reality it was now old and disgusting. He decided to drop his old tail there, leaving with it all his past worries. As he continued his journey all he took with him were thoughts of the future.