An old Cherokee Indian chief was teaching his grandson about life.
“A fight is going on inside me,” he told the young boy, “a fight between two wolves.
One is evil, full of anger, sorrow, regret, greed, self-pity and false pride.
The other is good, full of joy, peace, love, humility, kindness and faith.”
“This same fight is going on inside of you, grandson…and inside of every other person on the face of this earth.”
The grandson ponders this for a moment and then asks, “Grandfather, which wolf will win?”
The old man smiled and simply said, “The one you feed.”
I love this story. It’s potent. I needed this story right now in my life.
The two wolves represent to me – mindfulness, (the ‘good’ wolf) and un-mindfulness or ‘ego’ as some might say, (the ‘bad’ wolf).
Mindfulness, in my experience and observation, brings with it wisdom, compassion, love connectedness and inner peace.
Un-mindfulness, I see in myself and the world at large, leads to suffering, anger, greed and destructiveness.
I needed this story right now to remind me of what’s really truly important to me. What really, ultimately, matters.
I got busy these past weeks and lost a bit of balance in my life. I started to make little decisions, seemingly insignificant ones that were feeding the wrong wolf – the wolf I don’t really want to feed. Then that ‘bad’ wolf started to rear his head.
Then I noticed, I woke up! And now choose something different – with every fibre of my being I make that choice – to feed to ‘good’ wolf of mindfulness.
This story reminded me to continue to take responsibility for cultivating and nurturing a beautiful mind. Every day. Every moment.
It reminded me that every day we make choices, important choices that could be overlooked as being trivial – and these choices define us. They are a statement of who we choose to be in this life and what impact we will have on the world around us.
It reminded me that even when the outside world is demanding, the state of my inner world should always be my primary concern because without inner balance, without mindfulness, I cannot properly live in harmony and wisdom with myself and with life.
So what about you - which wolf have you been feeding?
And what, my dear friend, do you choose now?
- by Melli O'Brien
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