The Wolf You Feed

The Wolves Inside You

An elder Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life. He
said to them, "A fight is going on inside me.. it is a terrible fight and it is
between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret,
greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false
pride, superiority, and ego.

The other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity,
humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth,
compassion, and faith."

"This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other
person, too", he added.

The Grandchildren thought about it for a minute and then one child
asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee simply replied... "The one you feed."

I'd heard this story before, when I was in college.  I encountered a reference to it on the web today, and just felt like sharing.

Comments

[cece]

YAY You're back! Don't leave for five days without an excuse next time. Missed ya.

[Wulfgar]

Sorry, Cece. As with most Montanans, I've been overwhelmed with how much there is to do before the leaves fall, and the snow flies.

As always, you can catch me in the comments elsewhere. Thanks for missing me, though.

[-=e=-]

YEAH!
I like that analogy.

[moorcat]

We always miss you when you go, Bro, but we also understand that life usually intrudes...

Good to hear from you again.

I like your story. It is actually one of the many in a book I will have to let you borrow one of these days. It is basically a book of Native American Teaching Parables (sp?) and it also has a large section on Native American Mythology.

Moorcat

[Patia]

Wow, that's lovely.

[Craig]

To steal (sort of) from Jack Handey: I sure hope my wolf likes beer and enchiladas, because that's what he's getting!

OK, that was lame, but now it's out of my system.

[Courtney]

I've always loved that story.