I shared this parable a few years ago and would like to expand upon it this time.
Two monks were strolling by a stream on their way home to the monastery. They were startled by the sound of a young woman in a bridal gown, sitting by the stream, crying softly.
Tears rolled down her cheeks as she gazed across the water. She needed to cross to get to her wedding, but she was fearful that doing so might ruin her beautiful handmade gown.
In this particular sect, monks were prohibited from touching women. But one monk was filled with compassion for the bride. Ignoring the sanction, he hoisted the woman on his shoulders and carried her across the stream—assisting her journey and saving her gown. She smiled and bowed with gratitude as the monk splashed his way back across the stream to rejoin his companion
The second monk was livid. “How could you do that?” he scolded. “You know we are forbidden to touch a woman, much less pick one up and carry her around!”
The offending monk listened in silence to a stern lecture that lasted all the way back to the monastery. His mind wandered as he felt the warm sunshine and listened to the singing birds.
After returning to the monastery, he fell asleep for a few hours.
He was jostled and awakened in the middle of the night by his fellow monk. “How could you carry that woman?” his agitated friend cried out. “Someone else could have helped her across the stream. You were a bad monk.”
“What woman?” the sleepy monk inquired.
“Don’t you even remember? That woman you carried across the stream,” his colleague snapped.
“Oh, her,” laughed the sleepy monk. “I only carried her across the stream. You carried her all the way back to the monastery.”
I ask you, do you have things (people, situations, blame, shame, regret, etc) that you have carried all the way to this moment that you could have left by the stream and moved on?
I get it. I have done that. I have refused to release or forgive things in my life.
Why?
Often I, and probably you too, continue to carry it because you believe that if you let it go you are condoning it, that it would make it OK that it happened, that you are giving into that person and therefore they win and you lose.
But is that really the case? Do you actually lose if you forgive?
Have you ever heard the quote that hanging onto anger, grievances, bitterness, etc is like taking poison and hoping that the other person will die?
Um, by the way, that means that if you hold onto it, you do NOT win, it just keeps poisoning you more and more and more!!!
What baggage could you rinse off today? What can you release and leave to the past because it actually belongs?
It belongs to the past, not the present. Nor does it need to be carried into the future!
It’s time to release it. It’s time to tell those people and situations, etc that they are no longer welcome in your present. They no longer get to take up space and energy. It is time for them to leave!
You can thank them for the lessons that you learned and the values you were taught and tell them that they can go now. Then say “bye, bye” and move on.
Ask yourself what baggage, burdens, and grievances are you dragging around that you can let go of today?
It may not happen all at once, however, start that release process now!
Set yourself free!
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