Moving Forward in Times of Instability and Change

Moving Forward in Times of Instability and Change

This Article First Appeared in Happify

Sometimes, the simplest of stories are the most profound.

I have a vivid memory. When I was a little girl, at bedtime, my grandmother would tell us the story of two crows. The male crow ate only the foods that people threw out because of greed and excess. The female ate the crumbs people would kindly leave out for love of the crows. The male crow grew strong because most people threw away food all the time. The female stayed frail because few people actually cared for crows. But as time went on, the excess foods poisoned the male crow and he fell very ill. The female crow, on the other hand, grew strong with a heart of love. She collected the โ€œcrumbs of loveโ€ and fed them to him. Slowly, he recovered. With no crow to eat their surplus food, the people stopped buying and cooking in excess and only fed the crows their leftover bits out of love. And, of course, the whole world lived happily ever after!

When I think back to this story, I canโ€™t help but marvel at how connected our ancestors were to the land, to its many species, and to their responsibility toward society. Almost all traditions have similar parables of good and evil, based on their culture and environment. One thatโ€™s more familiar in the Western world is the parable of the two wolves of the heart. The wolf of fear and the wolf of love.

As the narrator tells his grandson about the internal war between the two, the little boy asks: โ€œWhich one wins, Grandfather?โ€

โ€œThe one you feed,โ€ comes the wise reply.

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Weโ€™ve all had days when weโ€™ve fed the wrong wolf. And, these days in particular, itโ€™s easy to get caught in all thatโ€™s wrong and uncertainโ€”inย rage, envy,ย regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, and pessimism. Itโ€™s easy to hang onto anxious thoughts, or to spread messages of divisiveness, often from a place of self-righteousness.

But they only feed our fear.

We can certainlyย feel anxious about whatโ€™s to come. Or angry about everything that undermines basic human rights. But instead of magnifying our differences, we can choose to feed the wolf of love. We can choose to care about possibility and justice. We can choose to spread hope and humility, kindness, and generosity. We can choose to show up with compassion because weโ€™re all connected in ways we donโ€™t fully appreciate.

In my personal and professional experiences, Iโ€™ve found that those who extend the ripples of compassion the farthest are the ones who have deep and abiding compassion for themselves. Maybe thatโ€™s where you need to begin.

Or maybe itโ€™s in asking yourself questions like:

  • โ€œHow can I be a source of hope for others?โ€
  • โ€œWho are the people who inspire me to be my best?โ€
  • โ€œWhatโ€™s the one thing Iย canย do, and how will I do it?โ€

 

[Free Download] Do a Life Audit to see where you need to make changes in your life.

Because love leads to courage. And in every crisis, itโ€™s courage that leads to a better long-term outcome for all. So, if youโ€™re pining for things to go back to โ€œnormal,โ€ remember there was nothing normal about the time before. Whatโ€™s normal is whatโ€™s aligned with ourย human need for connection. In this time of global resetting, what part will you play?

 

 

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