Skip to main content

A LESSON FROM THE ELDER.

Grandfather was an elder Cherokee Native American who had a wrinkled, nut brown face and kind dark eyes. His grandson often came in the evening to sit on his knee and ask the many questions that children ask.

One day the grandson came to his grandfather with a look of anger on his face; the child's anger turned to quiet tears. "Come sit, tell me what happened today", grandfather said. "Father and I went to the store today and because I helped him, he bought me a present of a jack-knife. It was small but a good size for me.

Here the boy laid his head against his grandfather's knee and became silent. The grandfather, softly placed his hand on the boy's raven hair and said, "And then what happened?"

   
Without lifting his head, the boy said, "I went outside to wait for father and to admire my new knife in the sunlight. Some town boys came by and saw me, they got all around me and starting saying bad things. They called me dirty and stupid and said that I should not have such a fine knife. The largest of these boys pushed me back and I fell over one of the other boys. I dropped my knife and one of them snatched it up and they all ran away laughing." Here the boy's anger returned, "I hate them. I hate them all."

The elder Cherokee, with eyes that have seen too much, lifted his grandson's face so his eyes looked into the boy's face. Grandfather said, "Let me tell you a story. I too, at times, have felt a great hate for those who have taken so much with no sorrow for what they do. But hate wears you down and does not hurt your enemy. It is like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feeling many times. It is as if two wolves are inside me.... It is a terrible fight.

One wolf is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him and does not take offence when no offense was intended. It will only fight when it is right to do so and in the right way. This wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.

The other wolf is full of anger. The littlest thing will set him into a fit of a temper. He fights everyone, all the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is helpless anger, for his anger will change nothing. This wolf represents fear, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, lies, false pride and superiority.

Sometimes it is hard to live with these two wolves inside me for both of them try to dominate my spirit. This same fight is going on inside you and inside every other person too.

The boy looked intently into his grandfather's eyes and asked, "Which wolf will win?" The old Cherokee simply replied....

"The one you feed."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Google Authenticator, a formidable layer of protection to your account.

​Google Authenticator is a free security app that can protect your accounts against password theft. It's easy to set up and can be used in a process called two-factor authentication (2FA) offered on popular social media services like Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.  The app ( iOS / Android ) generates a random code used to verify your identity when you're logging into various services. The code can technically be sent to your phone via text message every time— but the Google Authenticator app provides an extra level of security.  SMS-based 2FA has a  known security flaw , and any devoted hacker can attempt to  socially engineer  an attack against your phone company. The Google Authenticator app eliminates the possibility of an SMS-based attack  using algorithms  to generate the codes on your phone. Here's how to set it up: 1. Download Google Authenticator from either the Apple App Store or the Android Google Play store. It's free. 2. Nex...
Post a Comment
Read more

Floyd Mayweather Baby Mama Sues for $20 Mil ... He's a Despicable Liar

Floyd Mayweather could lose tens of millions of dollars from his big payday if his baby mama gets her way ... because she's just filed a lawsuit claiming he ruined her with lies to save his own ass. Josie Harris, who has 3 kids with Floyd, claims he lied through his teeth in an interview with Katie Couric just 2 weeks before the big fight ... when he claimed Josie was in a drug-fueled rage and he had to "restrain" her during their infamous 2010 domestic violence incident. Point of fact ... Floyd was convicted of domestic violence and spent two months in jail. Josie recounts her terror in the lawsuit, explaining how she and Floyd had broken up ... but he flew into a jealous rage that night, broke into her home and viciously attacked her while she was sleeping on her couch ... and her kids saw part of the beating. Harris says she is now labeled a drug addict thanks to Mayweather's lies -- and was embarrassed and humiliated on a global scale.   Her lawyer, Dan Friedl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Google, harder to search for results from other countries

For a long time, there was an easy way to conduct a Google search in a country other than the one you’re in. If you wanted to get results specific to Japan, for instance, you would visit www.google.co.jp; to get Australian results you would visit www.google.com.au — but this trick no longer works. Google has announced that it will now always serve up results that are relevant to the country that you’re in, regardless of the country code top level domain names (ccTLD) you use. The reason given is a little bizarre. The search giant says that the change has been introduced because of the way people are using the search engine these days. It says: “around one in five searches on Google is related to location, so providing locally relevant search results is an essential part of serving you the most accurate information.” The argument seems counterintuitive, however. Anyone who has changed the ccTLD has done so consciously, and for a reason — for Google to override this decision is strange...
Post a Comment
Read more