Once upon a time, there was a woman who lived in a home. It was a wonderful home. The woman worked hard to keep her home in good order, because she loved her family so much.
One day, the woman saw mouse. It was a cute little thing (so she thought at first), but, she did not want it in her home. So, the woman caught the mouse, and she put it back outside. But, lo and behold, shortly thereafter, the mouse came back—that is, so far as she could tell one mouse from another—and, this time, it brought with it some friends.
The woman tried to catch the mice, but, as you know, mice multiply quickly. So, now there were many mice in the woman’s beautiful home. The more there were, the more that came. The more that came, the more there were. When the woman chased one mouse, another mouse entered her home.
The mice burrowed into her home furniture and new pillows. Mice were everywhere! And, she couldn’t take it anymore! The more there were, the more that came. The more that came, the more there were. The woman’s beautiful home was no longer beautiful, and the mice were threatening her family! She tried to remove the mice, but she just couldn’t do it!
The more mice there were, the more mice that came. The more mice that came, the more mice there were.
The woman was exhausted. There had to be a solution. And, there was…
She had to find the hole!
She could not keeping trying to capture every mouse. She had to fix the hole. But first, she had to find it! Mice will find the smallest opening to invade a home. Capturing mice is easy, but finding the hole where they enter, that is the hard part.
So, rather than focusing on capturing mice, the woman focused on filling the hole. She searched the home to find the hole. She asked, “Where is the point of entry through which so many mice can enter? And, if I find the hole, with what substance should I fill it?”
The woman searched the home, the foundation and the framing. And, she finally found the hole! At once, she went outside and used some material to fill in the hole. For a while, there were no more mice. The external solution worked. But, not too much later, there were mice again! The woman went outside and saw that the mice—or something else—removed the external solution!
Again and again, the woman tried to fill the hole from the outside, but, every time she tried to do something on the outside, something on the outside caused the hole to open again! The woman was again exhausted, not from the mice, as it was, but from going outside to keep filling the hole!
Well then, thought the woman, at last, “I will fill the hole, from the inside!” And so she did. From inside her home, she used the strongest substance to fill the hole. And, because it was filled on the inside, internally, she could easily watch for any cracks from the inside.
And, the woman’s home was beautiful, once again. And, forevermore, there were no more mice in the woman’s beautiful home… Well, occasionally, there would be a crack and a mouse would get in, but the woman knew how to fill it immediately.
So, the woman—and her family —lived happily ever after.
THE MORAL OF THE STORY
The home is the metaphor for ourselves. The mice are the innumerable things from the outside world that in-vade us and ruin our happiness. Sometimes, such things are small or cute, and we pay them little attention. But, they multiply quickly. The more that are, the more that come.
If we have holes in our personal framework, there are many things that can enter. We have to find where the hole is that allows these things to enter our minds.
We often spend too much time focusing on the mice, rather than the hole!
The holes in ourselves tend to be abstract things like vices or weaknesses, and the mice tend to be the actual things that enter because of those holes.
We may seek external solutions, such as buying overly expensive things. Like we are in a race against others.
We may feel better for a while, but, being external solutions, the solutions themselves remain subject to external conditions or validation from others. And, each external attempt to fix, tends to have its own cost or complication, such as buying something to create a fix causes us to overspend. So, one fix requires two, and two fixes require four, feeding upon itself.
The external attempt to fix ourselves can never be complete, because we can never ultimately control the external conditions. But, we need to be very careful, as some things are filling the hole, but not really fixing it.
And, more so, some things purport to be fixing the hole, but they are really only filling in a hole that remains to some degree.
Therefore, the answer is to look for solutions internally, within ourselves. But, first, we need to find the hole. Often the hole is an insecurity, hope, wish or desire, by which particular things will seem to satisfy it, but they will not sustain as such.
© 2020 Jodi Zegarelli and Gregg Zegarelli. All rights reserved.
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