guilt and fears...

had been busy again...

read a book 'Finishing Strong' by Steve Farrar. it is a good book and i can relate to many things in the book. here's one of the stories about guilt and fears that struck me and serves as a good reminder to what and how we are bondaged in our hearts with past guilts and shame and also unnecessasry fears.

Circus elephants

when the elephants are just babies, the trainer puts a shackle around one of their legs, with a chain attached to a stake. these babies are maybe three to four hundred pounds at best, and they will try and try to get away from that chain. but they can't.

The strange thing is that the massive adult elephants - which may weigh a couple of tons - can be held by the very same shackle as the one used on the youngsters.

how is it possible? number one, elephants really do have great memories. but number two, they aren't all that bright. the adult elephant remembers how he was staked up as a baby and couldn't get away from the stake. and at a certain point, as a baby, he became convinced that he could never get away. so now as an adult, he doesn't even try. that elephant is not chained to the stake; he's chained to the idea that he can never get away. that's how a ten-pound stake can hold down a two-ton elephant.