The Fisher and His Wife

When our boys were a little younger they loved listening to fairy tales; as it turned out, 'The Fisher and His Wife' wasn't one of them. I understand why, the story does hit a little too close to home and little children are aware enough to pick this up. The fairy tale goes like that, a poor fisher catches a golden fish who promises him three boons if he lets him free again. The fisher lets the golden opportunity slip, but sets the fish free nevertheless. At home, he tells his wife about it and she demands that he goes back to ask the fish for a big house. Soon after she got her house,  she wants a castle. Soon after she got a castle she wants a kingdom. Even being a queen is not satisfying enough, and soon afterwards - her fourth wish -she wants to be God. Well, she clearly overstepped her boundaries and ends up being back in her old house without anything.

Norman Mailer in his book 'On God' reported that he always felt the most energetic when both his demon as well as his angel were equally excited about a certain project. That's what we tend to do. We are passionate about something and run after it, but as we are hit with many choices a long the way, the saner part in us tends to get the upper hand more often than not, especially when we deal with other people. Your ego is obsessed with something, while your True Self uses life as a perfect opportunity to heal. It doesn't matter what you are running after, the perfect opportunity to heal just lies around the corner. Only one thing is required though, you need to have both feet in life. If your head is in fantasy land all the time, the healing process cannot reach you because the loud voice of your ego tends to drown out the quite voice of reason.  This brings me back to the story of the fisher and his wife. She never spent time with any of her new entitlements. She didn't spend time in her new large house, experiencing what it means to take care of a large property. She didn't spend time in her castle, observing what it takes to lead people. She also didn't spend any time as a queen and consequently didn't know what it means to be responsible for an entire kingdom. No, before life could interact with her, her passion already got her to the big next crazy idea.

Along the way the whimsical fisher got many clues that the progression of things wasn't going right. When he went to the water to call the fish, the water got progressively darker and the weather progressively worse. He also had to wait longer and longer before the fish showed up. The Tao provides these signs, the feedback mechanism to make the right choices. Life heals if you are willing to take everything that happens to you and in your environment into consideration. Yes, you have to run after your passions - this happens to be your mission statement - but it is your job as a creator to find the solution that is consistent with your unique spiritual path. The fisher and his wife weren't ready to command their creative powers, but at least you can always learn from their mistakes.