Once upon a time there was a lion who was bullying all the other animals in the jungle. One day the animals got together and decided that they must get rid of the lion. First they asked the elephant because he was the biggest. “Oh no!” said the elephant. “That lion will tear my trunk off.” So they asked the giraffe because he was the tallest but he didn’t want to stick his neck out. Then they turned to a pack of hyenas but the hyenas just laughed at them. They didn’t know what to do. Suddenly they heard a tiny voice say, “I’ll kill the lion.” They looked around but saw no one. “I said, I’ll kill the lion.” The little voice repeated. Then, behind a blade of grass, they saw a flea. “I’ll kill the lion,” said the flea. The jungle animals roared with laughter and resigned themselves to being bullied but the little flea was determined. That night, as the lion was sleeping, the flea crawled into his ear and started buzzing.
The lion awoke annoyed but try as he might, he couldn’t get rid of the flea. All he could think about was the constant buzzing. Day and night the flea kept buzzing.
The lion couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat and grew weaker and weaker. Finally the lion passed away and the flea emerged victorious.
For us, resentment is like that flea. It is constantly There, annoying
us, breaking down our serenity, destroying our spirituality.
The Big Book of AA says “the wrong-doing of others, fancied or real,
had power to actually kill.” There are more “fleas” out there. Some are
selfishness, fear, dishonesty and ego. Fortunately we have a “design for living” that helps deal with
them.
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