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I'm just finished reading an article from unknown author and saw a lot of parallels in there to my own way. Therefore I wanna share this article with you because it holds a lot of wisdom.

"Do you sometimes have the feeling that you're running into the same obstacles over and over again? Many of my conflicts have the same feel to them, like "Hey, I think I've been here before," but I can't figure out how I wound up in the same place. The situation is different, but the conflict feels the same.

I first read this poem in "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" by Sogyal Rinpoche. When I "Googled" it, I found fourteen pages of links. It's clearly a favorite with many people; I know it speaks volumes to me.

"Autobiography in Five Chapters"
1) I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I fall in.
I am lost . . . I am hopeless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

2) I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I'm in the same place.
But it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

3) I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in . . . it's a habit
My eyes are open
I know where I am
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

4) I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I walk around it

5) I walk down another street.

Does this feel familiar? I am ready to learn that lesson! I'm sure that I've changed. I can see that hole coming a mile away. This time it will be different. I still end up falling in. Tired, sad and angry, I drag myself up once again. What was I supposed to learn here? I thought I learned that the last time.

Some conflicts seem to take years to unravel, but if we stay tuned, and our purpose is to look with curiosity and awareness, we will find the moment when we can step around the hole.

As I write, thinking about a recent stumble of my own, I am smiling a bit. From a distance, I watch myself drop into the hole - one I know well - and it's kind of funny. And perhaps that is the way out - to laugh more often, to "love our mistakes," as my friend says. I've heard it said that eventually we will laugh at all our mistakes - the trick is to laugh sooner. When I can laugh as I climb out of the hole, I'm on my way to finding the route around it, or better yet, that alternate street."

Author Unknown

What do you think about it and did you have similar experiences?
#conflict #habit #it’s #lessons #mistakes #obstacles #stumble
  • Profile picture of the author Odahh
    well considering i came close to really falling in a hole in the sidewalk .

    form a long time period of my life ..for a pretty long time it seemed lifde was just one hole in the side walk after another ..cycling through the same holes .

    so what if the real problem is that others are falling in their own holes .. over and over ..so it feels kind of normal.. so the support is how to get out of holes .. and no one wants to tell anyone else to avoid the holes because they are busy helping others out of holes ..when they are not getting out of theirs and asking for help then .

    that is why it is the odd people .. who seem to have to crawl out of their own holes starting early on.. who quicly learn to avoid some where they don't get help ..where as .."normal" people surround themselves with people with similar holes and build life long social networks around getting others out of holes who then get them out of holes ..

    and fow people in the west who have been trained to expected others to keep them safe ..and to save them.. there is no incentive for many to avoid holes ..

    until every falls in holes about the same time which with all the people with major health problems from personal behavior.

    so every path has it's holes.. and most of the time other people have taken the path ahead of you fallen in the holes and told someone about it..

    so forget positive thinking when it come to believing their are no holes or yopu will see them all and not fall in .. see what holes others have falling in ahead of you and if you they can get out of them.. learn how they did it so you can quickly get out of any hole ..
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