“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.” Chauncey Depew
As the story is told, hunters living in South American jungles use a simple but effective strategy to capture monkeys.
The hunters cut a small hole in a gourd. The hole is just large enough for a monkey to squeeze their open hand through. Then they would place a large piece of tempting fruit in the gourd and secure the gourd to the base of a tree.
The fragrant smell of the fruit would permeate the jungle air and before long a monkey would pick up on the scent and track it back to the gourd with the fruit in it.
Within moments of discovering the gourd with the fruit in it the monkey would find the hole and reach into the gourd and grab a hold of the luscious and tempting piece of fruit. As the monkey would attempt to get the piece of fruit it would discover that the hole wasn’t big enough to pull out the fruit and its hand. No matter how hard the monkey would try, with the fruit in its hand the hole was simply not big enough to get the fruit out of the hole. But, now that the monkey has the fruit in its hand he refuses to let go of it. The monkey thinks it possesses the fruit, but the fruit possesses him.
The next day the hunters would come back to check their traps and as they would approach; the monkey would scream and carry-on, fearful for its life. However, because of the fragrant and tempting smell the monkey would refuse to let go of the fruit and was easily captured.
All the monkey had to do to gain its freedom was to let go of the fruit. However, it would not. The monkey had to have the fruit, but in reality it did NOT have the fruit. You will never enjoy today if you are holding on to yesterday. You can’t enjoy life if you can’t enjoy today as you pursue a better tomorrow. The monkey chose its desire for the fruit over its desire for life and in the end lost both the fruit and its life.
83. What’s in your gourd? What are you clinging to? What are you holding onto that prevents you from living free? (Make a short list-)
84. How can you pursue the best things in life without letting anything possess you?
“Fear is the memory of pain. Addiction is the memory of pleasure. Freedom is beyond both.” Unknown
“Forgiveness means letting go of the past.” Gerald Jampolsky
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other…” Matthew 6:24
Freedom doesn’t come from what you possess, but from letting nothing possess you.