11 Beware of the Inner Wolves


Beware of the Inner Wolves.

A young lad arrived home from school full of anger.  One of the other boys in his class had done something to upset him. He had felt like hitting out at the other boy but at the last minute had remembered that his grandfather had told him such actions solved little. Instead on his way home from school he had gone to visit his Grandfather and told him about it. 

His grandfather sat him down and said to him, "Let me tell you something. I too, at times, have felt a great hate for those that have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do. But hate wears you down and does not hurt your enemy. It is like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times.

It is as if there are two wolves inside me; one is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him and does not take offence when no offence was intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so and in the right way.

But the other wolf, ah! He is full of anger. The littlest thing will set him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of them try to dominate my spirit."

The boy looked intently into his Grandfather's eye and asked, "Which one wins, Grandfather?"

The Grandfather solemnly said, "The one I feed."

Beware the inner wolves, and always know which one you are feeding.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

4 Building For Sale

Building for Sale  There was a notice on the front of an old building telling all who passed that the property was for sale. The owner had decided it was time to retire and sell up. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn rubbish and litter around the interior. As he showed a prospective buyer the property, the owner took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the rubbish.  "Forget about the repairs," the buyer said. "When I buy this place, I'm going to build something completely different. I don't want the building; I want the site."  How often in life do we stop and say it is time to make changes to our lives? We need to improve ourselves.  We make promises or resolutions to do just that, but they are only tinkering around the edges. Now and again we need to be more honest and...
Read more

19 The Two Monks

The Two Monks One day, two monks were walking through the countryside. They were on their way to another village to help bring in the crops. As they walked, they spied an old woman sitting at the edge of a river. She was upset because there was no bridge, and she could not get across on her own.  The first monk kindly offered, "We will carry you across if you would like."  "Thank you," she said gratefully, accepting their help.  So the two men joined hands, lifted her between them and carried her across the river. When they got to the other side, they set her down, and she went on her way.  After they had walked another mile or so, the second monk began to complain. "Look at my clothes," he said. "They are filthy from carrying that woman across the river. And my back still hurts from lifting her. I can feel it getting stiff."  The first monk just smiled and nodded his head. A few more miles up the road, the second monk griped...
Read more

14 How Much Land do we need?

How Much Land do we Need? There once lived a farmer who owned a good amount of land and this made him fairly wealthy. But he was never happy with what he had; he was always looking for just a little bit more. One day he received an offer that he could not turn down, for 1000 rubbles he could have all the land that he could walk around in one day. The only catch in the deal was that having set out to walk at daybreak he had to be back at his starting point before sunset. He was a fit man and took up the challenge. Early the next day he set off at a very fast pace. By midday, he had covered a good amount of land, he was very tired, but he kept on walking covering more and more ground. Well into the afternoon he began to realise that time was running short and he was a long way from his starting point.  He quickened his pace almost to running speed but still, his starting point seemed a long way off. As the sun began to set, he once more picked up his ...
Read more