Pardon me – Two wolves

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather,  ”which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “the one you feed.”

Who do you believe in I put my faith in God blessed and still breathing and even though it’s hard that’s who I believe in. The late, great brother Tupac Shakur imparted these words of wisdom on me through song. I read the above Cherokee philosophy this past Saturday when I was at the rites of passage program I volunteer with. It spoke to me because last week I was contemplating writing something about getting the ‘hater’ out of you. You know, ridding ourselves of the jealousy and envy that resides within us. Sadly we can easily recognize others ability to “hate” or be envious but we put blinders on when it comes to ourselves. In it’s most humble form, jealousy and envy appears within one of us when we see someone doing something we deem great and we question how they got in that position. We are better suited for that spot, how in the world did that idiot get in such a position when we’re smarter. We’re more righteous, we are the better person. Etc. ect. Sometimes it’s not as blatant but we know when ill thoughts creep up in our mind. I do it, it’s unconscious sometimes and it takes a lot to admit such that such a wack trait lurks in my subconscious, but it’s there and I shared it, I can’t take it back.

So when I read the old Cherokee saying I found strength in knowing that I was not alone, that this fight goes on in every man and woman. It shows up in our fears, our insecurities, our inflated egos. It’s a fight that goes on in every man and woman and I for one have not escaped it. I was feeling a little heavy today. Happy yet sad, I had a knot in my stomach. I had that heartbreak knot in my stomach but I haven’t been dumped in a while so it couldn’t have been heartbreak. haha. And it came to me while emailing a good brother of mine,a  brother in Christ, a brother in Alpha, a brother.

Fear, somewhere deep inside my mind I was feeding the fear wolf instead of the hope and faith wolf. I recently put my testimony forth, talked about just how blessed I am and how blessed I feel. But if you’ve ever been down and out, you know that you never want to be in that position again. Happiness is something we must work at, we have to work at it every day, we have to nurture the happiness within us so that we can continue to experience it. Faith, faith is the unseen, just knowing that God will order your steps.

But that fear, it grips us. It can force us to remain in the status quo because we are too scared of risking our happiness. We want to horde what we have instead of working towards more internal bliss. But we have two wolves fighting this war within us. The one we feed is who will grow stronger and defeat the other. Don’t feed your evil wolf! Don’t feed the wolf who wants to sabotage you, the wolf who grips you up and lets insecurity and inferiority control you. Don’t feed that wolf because that story has already been written. We know that desperate story, the painful portrait it paints.

No, I encourage you to nurture and feed that good wolf daily. Feed it with prayer, feed it with hope, feed it with a vivid imagination who sees you achieving your wildest dreams. Feed that wolf with positive energy, feed that wolf with thoughts of grandeur and happiness. Feed that wolf with the idea that ‘yep things are great right now and they can and will get better’. Last week the preacher said that there would be trials and tribulations in our lives, this fact, we will go through ups and downs. However God made a pact to bring you through a long time ago. Feed your good wolf with the belief that your God will deliver you. They say it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile yet we see so many frowns when we look around. Start a trend and let your smile be the smile that helps someone else smile. Feed their good wolf because it’s one heck of a world we are out here living in. We need some support. I support you. I pray you support me as well in starving that evil, hating wolf and giving my good wolf the strength to win this battle. It’s going on in each and every one of us, I believe in you, I believe in us. Our good can win. Peace and Grace be unto you.