You’re in Africa when a terrible storm arises. The whipping wind and stinging drops of water on your skin are uncomfortable, so you jump into a nearby river for protection. Submerged, you breathe through a tube extending above the surface of the water. And now you’re shielded from both the wind and rain, but you’re also wet, you can’t see, and crocodiles are swimming toward the flesh you’re offering for dinner.
Seems absurd, yes? And yet this is not more absurd than what we do emotionally every day. In an effort to avoid the disapproval of others, we engage in behaviors whose danger is comparable to jumping in a river with crocodiles. We abandon who we really are—we sell our souls, in effect—to get out of the wind and the rain.
As we learn to find and share Real Love, we discover that the rain still falls from time to time. The wind blows too, but we’re just not as affected as we once were. We can find shelter that will partially or completely lessen the effects of the storms that may rage around us. We can’t stop the rain, but there are far more effective ways of responding to it than jumping in a river with crocodiles.
