I’ve invited Bob Jackiewicz to contribute a few articles to the blog.
The Tale of Two Wolves
A grandfather tells his grandson that we have two wolves within us – a good and a bad one. They’re always at war with each other.
“Which one will win?” the grandson asked. The grandfather replied: “The one you feed.”
In a few months I’ll have reached a ten-year anniversary marking the end of a five-decade-long relationship feeding myself alcohol and other substances.
Eight years ago I started feeding myself vegetarian and I’m pretty much vegan now.
Two months ago I ended a more than four-decade-long relationship with tobacco.
I’m tagging these events because I feel I’m qualified to speak about the voices one might hear in the head that provoke, prod or gently suggest like the good and bad wolf.
One voice I see as the ego and I’ll subtitle it fear. It definitely has the louder voice of the two. It’s guides through cunningness..
The other I’ll call inspiration. It’s an inner guidance that I’ll subtitle love. The love voice is becoming progressively more trustworthy. I’m falling in love with the “love” voice.
There’s been a clash between these two over time but one is getting stronger.
I know which voice will win out. Like the parable, it’ll be the one that receives the most attention.
I know which one that’ll be as well. The one that I’ve been giving my attention to.
The voice that’s guiding me through these transitions is not the voice that guided me to the condition that required change.
Where fear was crafty and insistent, love has a soft, gentle whisper.
To yield to one brings temporary euphoria. To follow the other brings equanimity, peace and lasting joy.
I mention these events not to boast or elicit admiration but to suggest how quickly I’m transforming lately. It’s remarkable in the truest sense of the word just as the transition of a caterpillar into a butterfly is.
It’s worthy of remarking because it feels like the ego’s voice is fading into the background and the love voice is advancing to the fore with strength and purpose.
Much of the journaling I do lately revolves around observing the transition between these inner voices that reveal a shift from one – fear – to the other – love.
I want to express some words of encouragement to anyone who may be within earshot of this inner voice of love and who may be struggling to hear it.
Breathe gently, still the body, quiet the mind, feel the heart and, if it’s a soft and gentle whisper that you hear, open to it. I promise you that you are on the road to profound satisfaction.
I know it’s not easy, but it’s simple. I know, too, that the road may seem long. Try to stay present, in the here and now of listening for your inner voice of love. It’s there. It always has been and always will be.
Listen to the voice that soothes and caresses. You already know how the other one feels.
“May the Angel of Awakening,
Stir your heart,
To come alive to the Eternal in you,
To all the invitations,
That quietly surround you.”
(John O’Donahue)