Illustration by Pirateswoop
You’re sitting atop a well’s circular wall with your legs dangling above the drop that leads to frigid water.
It’s a beautiful morning in the daisy ladened field with an early morning mist and light just starting to peak above the horizon as if to greet you hello.
You feel total solitude sitting there until a breeze of destructive thoughts interrupts your time of quiet contemplation; how will you respond to those thoughts when they blow your way?
- If you have a big report due shortly, you could respond to panicky thoughts by doing other “important work” instead of focusing on the essential task of getting your report done on time so you actually pass your class.
- If thoughts of paranoia and worry are whisked into your mind by the destructive breeze, you could jump in your car and take a ride to the local McDonalds and order 15 Big Macs even though you’re over weight and trying to lose weight.
- If suddenly you see your stocks taking a swan dive for the day, you could go out and buy a carton of cigarettes even though you’ve gone a week without lighting up a single one.
Responding like any of the three choices above is willingly diving face first into the frigid well that just earlier you were sitting on and enjoying the ambiance of. This is never in your best interest and never necessary.
What Bamboo Forest Does When The Breeze of Negativity Comes to Play
When the breeze of negativity comes my way, the first thing I do is maneuver my dangling legs so I’m no longer sitting on the edge of the well, but now standing atop it, facing down its pit. Gazing down at the frosty water thirty feet below I see myself looking back up at me.
I then pull off something that if uploaded to YouTube would become viral in days. I do a black flip from atop the well’s wall, with perfect form, landing with only a slight recoil in the knees. I’m now facing the rocky well’s border. I then do a 180 degree jump turn and land so that my back is facing the well and my face is looking out on the forest.
Now I run.
But not frantically, but with joy coursing through my body like a man who’s just won gold medal in the pole vault event because I now know I’m master of my mind and captain of my soul because I’ve chosen to make it so. Entering the neighboring forest, I stroll through the tall pine trees and beautiful wild ferns that populate this magical place.
I hear a rushing river in the distance and decide to chase it down so I can enjoy its magnificent sound not as a whisper but as it loudly declares to all who approach that its sounds dominate all the rest.
I lie on my back with the sun in full view, absorbing its light given to all men for free while listening to the river play its tunes to those who’ve opted to choose life over the frigid waters of the well.
I now know, without a semblance of doubt, I’ve made the right decision.
Photo by digitarald
