100 Days of Wisdom…Day 15

An old tale of two Zen monks:

Two Zen monks were once traveling together when they came to a stream widened by recent rainfall. By the bank stood a beautiful young woman dressed in fine clothes. She obviously wanted to cross the water but was distressed at the prospect of ruining her finery. Without hesitation one of the monks offered to carry the young woman across the stream on his back. She gratefully accepted his kind offer. The monk helped to hoist her up on his back and without more ado carried her across and put her down on the dry ground.

The two monks then continued on their way, but the other monk started complaining. “It is not right to touch a woman, especially one so young and lovely. It is against our commandments to experience close contact. How could you go against the rules for monks?” The monk who had carried the woman walked along silently for a few minutes before replying. Finally he said, “I set her down by the river, but you are still carrying her.”

Just yesterday I was in a incredibly sticky situation at work. At the time I was naturally worried about how I was going to resolve the situation and how I was going to go about it. It took me some time to get the situation resolved thanks to one very helpful site manager. Once I had finished doing what I needed to do I left the site and headed towards the train station. I noticed however that even after I got on the train I was still thinking about the sticky situation! WHY??? It was resolved! I was still carrying it with me even though I didn’t need to and it was that “carrying” that made it incredibly tired later that day.

What are you still carrying? Or should I say, what are you still choosing to hold on to that you could’ve let go a long time ago?