The Sheep who Preferred Sane Company, a fairy tale for enlightenment

It’s been a long day at market, but you’re home safe with curds and cream, salt bacon, and a cake of oats. There will be no hunger tonight. Be glad! Rest with good food and drink by the hearth. As a quiet rain arrives and wolves begin to howl, the crone stretches gnarled fingers toward the fire. She’s ready to tell her tiny tale, so open your heart and mind and find what meaning you will.  

 

 

There was a widow who tended sheep on a mountainside above an aged village. Rarely did she descend from the mountain as all the village women did despise her. There was good reason for this, and not good reason, as is almost always the case with hard feelings cast like dark spells. 

Our widow spent day after day, year after year, remembering bad things which had been said about her. She could not help herself. Though she promised the herd in her care to think no more of things which made her sick inside, the sheep nevertheless did find their gentle selves subjected to her angry arguments with persons unseen. This confused the wooly creatures to no end. Not only that. The sheep grazed sheepishly, unnerved by the widow’s red-faced shame when she fell silent at last. Which was not often.

And so, the sheep did whisper wisdom to the widow one night as she slept. For sheep know well of apology and needing the approval of no being.

The next morning the widow did wake and for once without thinking, hiked down to the village. There she approached the village women whom she knew she had offended in days long gone but not forgotten. Our widow surprised herself. She made apology to the women for her shortcomings, and when they unloaded their ugly opinions of her to her face, she did not resist.

She did not resist.

After this, the village women considered, privately, in each her own way, the matter of the widow.

As for our widow, she walked and did live thereafter with great ease, marveling at the sharp outline of mountain peaks and the soft petals of flowers. When she looked down upon the village and saw the women there, she bore them no ill will. For she understood they suffered enough with the thoughts in their heads, as she would sometimes still do. In this she and they were the same.   

The same.

And as for the sheep? No longer were they forced to endure the widow’s insanity. Instead, they did graze beside her in peaceful quiet, delighting in her company.

Heaven on earth is like this.

 

Perhaps you may wonder…

If there are those who still hold fast to hard feelings for you, even after your sincere attempt to reach out, to apologize—then what?

That is none of your business. It’s theirs. Do you understand? Let them be.

This is your business: Each day make peace as best you can—without judging others or assuming you know who they really are—as you practice being a beneficial presence in the world.

Staying in your own business makes life ever so easier. And good.