The Snails' Tale

Art (c) Peggy Cyphers http://peggycyphers.com/

My first week in the first grade was exciting, I loved learning and meeting new kids, and we had also just moved to a tropical climate. The schoolyard seemed a jungle to me, filled with tropical plants, a mango tree and teeming with snails and lizards. I could not resist picking up a few snails one day at recess and bringing them back to class!

I was watching them slide all over my desk, when my very British teacher said, “Linda, it’s time for class so please put your snails away.”

Of course I wanted to comply, I already adored her, but there was a problem – I had no place to secure the snails. The desks were tables with no storage, only a groove to keep our pencils from rolling. So I put the snails in there and said, “Stay.”

Believe it or not, they didn’t. So I spent the afternoon gently herding them back in with the eraser tip of my pencil. It must have been very funny for my teacher to watch, and I certainly let those unruly creatures loose in the garden right after school.

How many snails are you herding right now? What and who are you trying to control? How much time do you spend complaining about these snails (or friends, lovers, bosses, parents, kids)  that just will not behave no matter how many times you tell them? And what could you do if you re-purposed that time and energy? Are the snails really going to get loose and devour you?

We are all created incredibly powerful, but that power is often misdirected by conditioning that hopes to keep US in the pencil slot when we could easily glide out and own the world. And one way it does that is to make us believe we should or must control other people. Release them and you free yourself to do great things, and who knows, maybe they will follow your shining, happy example!