Mary found the wise rabbit taking care of its flowers.
“Sorry to interrupt,” she said
“No excuses necessary,” he said
“You have a strange way to do things,” she said, “I don’t quite understand it.”
“ We simply enjoy the process of things and so we are happy in the present moment. What is so strange about this?”
“But your efforts to change are so little and laughable. How you manage to do anything at all?”
“Change is a slow process, one item today, another tomorrow, and soon without you noticing it you habitually clean your garden. Even though it may appear slower at the start, the change doesn’t only come faster but also permanently.”
“But how you motivate yourself?”
“We don’t”
“WHAT?!?” Mary said shocked.
Every effort produced by will is soon unmade and you will back at the start, the river will continue for its usual course. You have to alter it only slightly each day to produce big changes”
“I understand,” she said, not understanding, “what you do with the rest of your time?”
“We relax mostly”
“You relax after… so little work?”
“Don’t mistake me, once that little thing is done we do what we feel, usually our job, once our job is done we relax.”
“Why relax so much?”
“Why hurry and produce unnecessary stress and anxiety? You can use the extra time to do other things besides work, like meeting your friends.”
“Ohh, I understand now. I will use this idea to write a novel, or paint a canvas, or create a server, or make a collage, or start a programming project, or remake my room makeup, this idea is so revolutionary! I will use it to revolutionize every aspect of my life!” She said enthusiastically.
The wise rabbit looked at her strangely “Why you want to do all those things?”
“What you mean?”
“Just answer”
“Because I have so many interests! I can’t choose between all of them!”
“Ah… I understand.” The wise rabbit said a bit sadly.
“What is it?” Mary said intrigued.
“I think that your problem is not too many interests or lack of effort, I think that your problem is not knowing why you do those things. Do those things matter to you?”
“Yes! I want to become better and be more active!”
“Why do you want to become better and more active?”
“So I will be better… and feel better.”
“Maybe, unconsciously, you switch from one project to the other, from one book to the next, because you don’t find meaning, you don’t find in your activities the soul work that you need to do.”
“No, you are wrong! I want to become a great… I want to become…” Her tongue stopped.
“I don’t expect an answer now. The answer eventually will come if you care enough for it. Now excuse me there are some nasty red flowers[1] that I need to remove.” And he went away.
“Rabbit,” she said looking at the flower rabbit “there are other ‘wise’ rabbits here?”
“No, but there is a talking cup that might help you.”
More confused than enlightened he went to talk to the cup, he was in some kind of municipal building. He was spitting a red liquid from his insides.
“Don’t worry,” said the flower rabbit “is not blood… or at least this is what he tells us.”
She went to talk to him.
“Sorry Mr Cup, I have a problem”
“Go on,” said the cup
“I want to become something, change, start something new, break the wheel, but I don’t know how”
“Have you ever tried giving other people advice on those things? “
“Yes!”
“It worked?”
“I don’t know…” he paused “no”
“I could talk all day about those things but I know that you wouldn’t understand them, you need practical experience. You will advise the people that come here, I need a break. There is a little rabbit that is coming here, right now. Bye.” And the cup went away, nearly running, far away in the mountains.
“What?” She thought to herself as one little rabbit came to her “sorry young lady, where is the cup?”
Smiling she replied, “The cup is… is…. is taking a break now, tell me what you need.”
The little rabbit seemed a bit ashamed “You know my room is a mess, I want to make it clean and orderly but I can’t bring myself to. What should I do?”
She thought for a little before responding “You should just find the motivation and start. You can do it! The momentum will carry you forward, I assure you.” She said not very sure.
The rabbit looked a bit confused “Ehmm, ok, I guest…” and went away.
The next was a group of rabbits “where is the cup?” they asked confused.
“He is taking a break,” she said, “you can ask me.”
“Oh he is taking a break…” they looked down “the problem is pretty serious, there an electric generator not very far from town, it’s badly broken, if it’s not repaired in the next 48 hours it will explode. Taking with it much of the city.”
“Wait, what?!?” He said very surprised
“We need help, fast.”
“Go there and do it?” She said confused.
“The problem is that the generator would take to long to repair, days or even weeks, we don’t know how to do it.”
“Mhmm, try doing the best that you can?”
The rabbits looked strangely at her and went away.
The next was an adult rabbit, “my problem” he told her “is that my wife always makes me angry, sometimes I want to beat her in a fit of rage. Yet I don’t want that, I want to control my rage. How I can do that?”
“Just stay calm and relax?”
That rabbit came several times during her stay there.
When the cup came a few days later, she found Mary exhausted on her desk.
“How it’s going?” He said fresh of his break.
“It’s a disaster! Why you went away! Besides, why should I know how to fix a husband & wife situation, why should I know how to fix a generator fast?!? Those are other people job, this is your job! Not mine. And besides why people come here for all sort of problems?!?”
“I told them to. Besides the advice wasn’t really that bad, just naive.”
“I know! You know how many times that rabbit husband-”
“Ted”
“Has come here?”
“You see how your strategies fail to create lasting change?”
“Yes!”
“Let’s me show you another way, a gentler way”
Cleaning one item each day, saying a kind word to your wife each day, improving and fixing very small things when you notice them, this is what the cup taught her.
When the sun shined high in the sky another started a better one.
Notes through the text
[1] If you managed to get that reference please send me a private message about it
