The Illusory Cage

So I completed a full blog yesterday and deleted it, because it wasn't perfect.  If that isn't raw criticism, I don't know what is.  Onward I progress, observing clearly that I haven't achieved the perfection that I am striving for, nor will I.  The beauty of progress, however, is that it doesn't lead me to a destination, but more progress.  If it was perfection that I reached, there would be no point to the life remaining.  

It is funny how I can agree with something, yet still not believe it to the core.  I believe in myself, yet still doubt myself deep down.  In order to change the pieces within me, I need constant repetition of the truth.  The truth that I have been focused on lately is creating me into the person that I am supposed to be and part of that is letting go of the pieces that hold me back.

I recently was told a story of a tribe that was trying to capture monkeys to learn more about them.  They used a standard trap with the bait placed between a box and the ground.  The monkeys were too clever and would reach under the box and retrieve the bait without going under themselves.  The natives came up with an ingenious idea to put the bait in a cage with slots in the side.  The monkeys would be able to fit their hand between the slots, but the slots were too close together to fit the bait back through.  Well, the monkeys were too greedy to let go of the bait, so they stood there until they were captured.  

The monkeys were self-confined.  They could move on, but they remained stationary and focused more on the unchangeable.  In a similar way, it is so easy to allow offenses from the past to define the future.  If I remain focused on the past, I will forever be chained to the ground, unable to grow and move forward.  In order to harness my full potential, I have to let go of the things that are caging me to my past.  There is a certain freedom waiting in the release of pain.  No one can free me but me.  It's time to let go. 

"Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons... Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart." -Psalm 107: 10-14