The Rocks In Our Path

Prayer, time, distance and balance are needed to give us perspective. We get distracted by a thousand things. A rock along the path can become a mountain we cannot move. Sometimes all we need is a helping hand to lift it up. William Breault recounts a story. A monk was walking down a country road. He was going to meet friends who lived a great distance away. Around noontime he began to tire. Uncentred and distracted, he stumbled upon a rock right in the middle of the road. Why would a rock be right in the centre of the road? As though someone had intended it! (The rock started to grow in size.) Someone had put the rock there for him to fall! (The rock grew even larger.) Someone who didn’t like him? (The rock by now had grown so large that it blocked the road entirely.) Along came a lady who just picked up the rock and threw it to one side. The monk was surprised at this great feat of strength. Ever so slowly the reason why he had started on his journey in the first place came back to his mind —Yes! The journey to see his friends! That was the important thing. Sometimes the rocks we encounter along the way are labels that people put on us. Like the paranoid monk we often get distracted by these labels and expectations and forget where we are headed and why we started on our journey. The paradox of living is that those who are most confused themselves and who lack real purpose in their lives, often are the very people who burden others with their unrealistic expectations.

Source: Economic Times, 7/01/2019