So the story goes….

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.

“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

I first heard this story years ago in my early twenties, back in a time when I was first attempting to make some kind of sense out of my life.
At the time I could say that I understood the words and might have agreed with their meaning, but I was still young, and didn’t pay much attention to it.
All these years later, as I approached 50, having raise two awesome children, having seen a marriage of 20 years finally come to an end, and retirement not too far down the road, that I find myself rereading that story.
It makes so much more sense to me now, and I’ve come to the realization that for the majority of my life the evil wolf has had control over me.
That’s not to say that the good wolf hasn’t had it moments.
There were times where the good wolf had a chance of taking over, but it the end the evil wolf has always been a little stronger.
In the past couple years I thought I found something that would finally gain the good Wolf the advantage in the fight. This however, again may not be the case, and it looks like the flight will continue.
But I will keep moving forward, as always.

Which one will win,
The one we feed.

No truer words have ever been said