One day a man goes to the circus.
He watches many performances, but none fascinate him as much as the elephant show.
He admires the elephant’s extraordinary strength as he sees it uproot long spikes hammered deep into the earth and lift its owner effortlessly up unto its back.
The momentum of such an enormous animal arouses both admiration and fear in the man.
After the show he goes in search of the elephant behind the circus tent, and is shocked to find the gigantic animal secured with only a single braided rope tied to a post.
Even after returning home the man continues to be confused over how such a flimsy restraint could hold back such a powerful animal.
He wonders whether the elephant has become tame or simply lacks the will to leave.
But if this is the case, then why tie it at all ?
After days of consideration the man returned to the circus to seek an answer from the elephant’s trainer.
When he asked the trainer how something so weak could restrain the elephant, the trainer laughed and said that it was simple.
He explained that the elephant had come to the circus as a baby, too small to pull even such a short post as this one.
The baby elephant had tried with all its might to break the rope, to uproot the post, but hadn’t been strong enough.
Because of this conditioning, even years later the elephant remembers this post and rope as being too strong to be broken and so remains as caged as if it had been surrounded by iron.
How many things do we accept or reject based on past experiences teaching us our limitations ?
A lesson learned once becomes an anchor if we neglect to test our ever-evolving strength.
I am finding this to be more and more true as I test and unlearn nearly everything I took to be fact.
The only limitations are the ropes we chose to believe in.
Sending you all my love
May you be free