PUTTING IT DOWN

My friend Adam has a book. In it is the story of two Buddhist Monks walking along a road. They come to a stream where a woman is pacing back and forth, unsure of how she will cross the river. One monk simply picks her up, carries her across the river, puts her down, and continues his walk with the second monk.

The two walk on for another ten miles in silence. Suddenly, the second monk says, "Brother, you KNOW we are forbidden to touch women . . . HOW could you do that?!" The first monk replies, "I put her down at the river's edge . . . why are you still carrying her?"

The New Year's resolution this year is to put it down. To quit carrying all the baggage of things I cannot fix nor change. To release the guilt, the sadness, the anxiety, the extra weight I keep as a barrier between the now and the past.

I am hopeful. I am joyful. I feel free.