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 โcrumbs 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 canโt 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 thatโs 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: โWhich one wins, Grandfather?โ
โThe one you feed,โ comes the wise reply.
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Weโve all had days when weโve fed the wrong wolf. And, these days in particular, itโs easy to get caught in all thatโs wrong and uncertainโinย rage, envy,ย regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, and pessimism. Itโs 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 whatโs 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 weโre all connected in ways we donโt fully appreciate.
In my personal and professional experiences, Iโve found that those who extend the ripples of compassion the farthest are the ones who have deep and abiding compassion for themselves. Maybe thatโs where you need to begin.
Or maybe itโs in asking yourself questions like:
- โHow can I be a source of hope for others?โ
- โWho are the people who inspire me to be my best?โ
- โWhatโs 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, itโs courage that leads to a better long-term outcome for all. So, if youโre pining for things to go back to โnormal,โ remember there was nothing normal about the time before. Whatโs normal is whatโs aligned with ourย human need for connection. In this time of global resetting, what part will you play?