The threshold by margarita_kochneva in Pixabay
Miracle thresholds
Human weaknesses can be as many as strengths, it all depends on what crystal you look at. However, that a weakness is transformed into a strength is a feat that requires many things in certain measures, but above all to "realize" that there is a "hole" in our "container" and take care to give it a chance to "serve" something and seek the positive within the supposedly negative.
That's what the great story that this week's QOTW brought us for enjoyment and reflection is about, and I place it below so that anyone who hasn't read it can draw their own conclusions and I can treasure this pearl myself.
THE HOLE IN THE BUCKET
A long time ago, there was a small village. In that village lived a serving man. His job was to fetch the water.
Every day, he would carry two empty buckets down the long path to the river, fill the buckets, and carry the full buckets back to his master's house.
One of the buckets was perfect and would carry all the water it held all the way back to the master's house. Naturally, it was very proud of its daily accomplishments.
The other bucket was imperfect. It had a crack. And every day, the serving man would fill it to the top with water, and every day, the bucket would slowly leak on the way back up the path and would arrive at the master's house only half full.
This went on for two years. Finally, the bucket with the crack in it couldn't take it any more. When the serving man reached the river, the bucket said to him, "I want to apologize to you."
The serving man was surprised. "Why would you want to apologize to me?"
"Because," said the bucket. "Every day you have to walk all the way down to the river to fetch the water and walk all the way back, and every day, I am only able to bring half the water you put in me back to the master's house. I am ashamed."
The serving man felt sorry for the bucket. He said, "I'll tell you what. As we make our way back up the long path to the master's house, look around you. There are beautiful wild flowers growing along the path that will cheer you up."
The bucket agreed; and as they walked back up the long path to the master's house, he did look around and the beautiful wild flowers did cheer him up. But when they reached the master's house, the bucket still only had half of the water it began with.
"I was still only able to do half the work," said the bucket. "I still failed. I am sorry!"
The serving man smiled, and said, "Did you notice that the beautiful wild flowers were only growing on your side of the path? I knew about your crack all along, and I took advantage of it. Two years ago, I dropped flower seeds along the path, and for two years, you have been watering those flowers. It's thanks to you and your leak that those flowers were able to grow and make the path to the river more beautiful, making everyone's work more pleasant."
In the wave of making the most of any opportunity that brings us closer to our inner selves in search of self-knowledge in a deliberate way and with wise questions, this week the question focuses on digging our "holes", from the moral of that story. And, look, we all have "holes" and also good uses for them and we don't realize it sometimes.
Digging deep
Looking at myself, looking into those corners obscured by lack of self-recognition, I could detect that I do have holes. Blessed are the holes! and I had not recognized them from the facet of good use that another part of oneself assumed or assumes proactively and with full awareness.
To make a weakness an opportunity can be taken as long as we take advantage of our mindfulness to work miracles that are waiting for us to materialize and nourish our lives as much as we propitiate and develop them. Just as in the story, there are beautiful gardens of dreams because "someone" sowed good seeds in our land and fertilized and maintained it, just like the "water carrier" in the story.
For many, many moons I have learned that it is very true that "when the student is ready, the teacher appears". In my life, a very wise teacher crossed who taught me that fear exists so that courage exists, not to annul it, but to exalt it, to impel it, and also that fear has doors and windows through which to manifest the light, or rthe darkness.
The thresholds
There are many thresholds, but the one I am referring to has a certain approach to how Wikipedia describes it: "the minimum amount of signal that has to be present to be registered by a system. For example, the minimum amount of light that the human eye can detect in the dark. The threshold is the basis for the psychophysical exploration of tactile, olfactory, visual or auditory sensitivities". Or in Psychology, the "threshold intensity below which the stimulus ceases to be perceived"
So, as I understand it, fear like pain and other sensations give off warning signals that usually manifest themselves with the expression or containment of emotions related to physical or psychic threats. And, lo and behold, I discovered my holes in the high threshold for pain and fear.
It sounds strange, but it's not that strange. I've always been a risk-taker, which doesn't mean I'm saying I'm brave. No, one thing has nothing to do with the other. I'm risky because I have a low perception of physical, mental, or emotional danger. I am very confident, but I move with my instincts, my heart has eyes wider than my face.
For example, when faced with an injury, acute pain, sprain, the possibility of dying from surgery, an earthquake or any event that is supposed to call into question my health security, I never feel the natural fear of survival. My reaction is always towards not perceiving gravity, even if there is one.
Why do I say it's a hole? Because my high threshold of pain keeps me equable in the face of adversities in which anyone else would panic, but do not create a flowery garden for me because on many occasions I have exposed myself more than necessary to medical emergencies that I postpone giving you the benefit of doubt, of waiting, of rest as an option for your own body to heal without due medical attention. It's a kind of psychological shield that keeps out fear, even healthy fear.
But, this fear deficiency once drove me to create a life for myself, to decide to have what I wanted: A car, an apartment, a young man to move my world, my dreams, my desires for adventure and madness that I had not had the chance to enjoy. And I achieved all this thanks to my high threshold of fear, a natural condition that has accompanied me for better and for worse.
Whoever wants to, can. This raised flag impelled me and continues to guide my life, always with good faith ahead of me because whoever works with a clear conscience, a pure heart and defined objectives, God opens the way... Thus, my thresholds have been my miracle holes.
20/05/2020
In response to @ecotrain in ecoTrain Question Of The Week S4E6: What is Your Hole In The Bucket?
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