FROM APPLE FARM WRITER, John Stempien. John lives in southwest, Michigan
There is a legend known by variant titles: Which one do you feed, Grandfather Tells, The Wolves Within, and Tale Of Two Wolves. Its origin is currently unknown. Some have attributed it as a Cherokee legend.
An old Cherokee chief was teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego. The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old chief simply replied, "The one you feed."
I am reminded of Helen Luke’s insight about this inner struggle and how it plays out in our outer world, specifically, how the individual responds to what he deems evil in a turbulent time. She writes in Dark Wood to White Rose, “Evil must indeed be exposed, and denounced, and fought by word and action, but it is never conquered by mere exposure nor by the passion of rejection nor by action alone, necessary as these things are. It becomes powerless before one thing only, which is the certainty of a man who, while evading nothing of the dark facts, asserts and acts out of the joy at the heart of life. This is not cheap optimism, nor has it to do with superficial happiness. It is a kind of certainty that can never be born out of evasion; indeed, those who do not know it are the ones who evade, for in some way they have refused or have been unable to face the conscious ‘journey into self.’ " (p. xiv.)
May we continue to feed ourselves, “the joy at the heart of life.”
There is a legend known by variant titles: Which one do you feed, Grandfather Tells, The Wolves Within, and Tale Of Two Wolves. Its origin is currently unknown. Some have attributed it as a Cherokee legend.
An old Cherokee chief was teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego. The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old chief simply replied, "The one you feed."
I am reminded of Helen Luke’s insight about this inner struggle and how it plays out in our outer world, specifically, how the individual responds to what he deems evil in a turbulent time. She writes in Dark Wood to White Rose, “Evil must indeed be exposed, and denounced, and fought by word and action, but it is never conquered by mere exposure nor by the passion of rejection nor by action alone, necessary as these things are. It becomes powerless before one thing only, which is the certainty of a man who, while evading nothing of the dark facts, asserts and acts out of the joy at the heart of life. This is not cheap optimism, nor has it to do with superficial happiness. It is a kind of certainty that can never be born out of evasion; indeed, those who do not know it are the ones who evade, for in some way they have refused or have been unable to face the conscious ‘journey into self.’ " (p. xiv.)
May we continue to feed ourselves, “the joy at the heart of life.”
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