The Bear and the Kettle

[Wolfstarr]

The Kettle

Let go. Why do you cling to pain? There is nothing you can do about the wrongs of yesterday. It is not yours to judge. Why hold on to the very thing which keeps you from hope and love?


--Leo Buscaglia


The late writer and speaker Emmett Fox once told the story of a bear breaking into a hunter's camp enticed by the sight of a lid dancing on top of a kettle of boiling water left over an open fire.

Curiosity overriding his fear of the flames, the bear grabbed the cast iron pot and pulled it to his chest. The heat from the pot was intense and as the bear held it to him it burned through his dense fur, causing searing pain.

Confused, frightened and totally misinterpreting the experience, the bear hugged the pot even closer. Eventually the scalding heat penetrated the flesh, fatally burning vital organs. After only a few minutes more, the bear at last released the pot and fell dead beside it. A victim of his own inability to let go.

In the midst of our own personal pain, we often forget the best remedy is to simply ask ourselves "Why do I insist on holding on to this?" And when no sufficient answer comes forth then all we need do is let it go.

May you always remember to turn loose of every pain.

Live More Abundantly Productions~~