Recently I received a blind attack by an individual that had met me only once for about forty five minutes. The attack was unsolicited and the attack reminded me of past verbal assaults. This person ran my character down, cursed, and veiled threats were made. All reminders of my past. She did not know my intent, my soul, my heart, she drew assumptions and did her best to bring me down. I suppose if this would of occurred years ago I might of yelled back, felt wounded, and become transiently depressed. Instead I thought how sad, she never gave me a chance, I thought of how lucky I am, how much love I have recently found, and sincerity, true genuine kindness. There is an old fable that is important for this interaction:

Two Wolves inside all of us

One evening, an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, ” My son, there is a battle each day between two wolves inside us all.

One is evil. It is anger, envy, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, blame, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, faith in the spirit, faith in yourself, and faith in others.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, ” Which wolf wins”

The old Cherokee simply replied, ” The one you feed.”

–anonymous

I was pleased at my response. I too have seen my growth over the years. This individual may of been jealous, angry, and needed to be hurtful due to her own insecurity. In the end it does not really matter. I will look hard to see her positives, I have seen her smile , her wit and humor. I know there is goodness there, it just needs to be cultivated and fed. It will do no good to confront, or to bring up the past. The present and the future is what is important. A dear friend has drilled this into my cerebral hemispheres, she is correct. Not to say that in order to move forward one must never look at the past, one has to locate the problem before the repair begins. Feed the good wolf, allow it to grow, pointing fingers will only feed the angry jealous wolf and one will be encompassed with sadness and despair. Give back to others attempt to forgive and embrace those that hurt us, you might be surprised, you know they will be.

Dan Williams