Inspiring Articles by Others

WHO’S KNOCKING AT YOUR DOOR: A story by Donn Watrous

Once upon a time there was a human, whose name I cannot say, but I will call Little Self. Little Self lived in a little house and knew very little about living. Little thought that life was very hard as it trudged, and sludged through each day. Little liked sleeping and other mindless activities so it wouldn’t have to think about life’s difficulties. The little house was cold and dark and Little Self was feeling lonely and depressed.

One day, there was a tapping at the door. Little thought “Who could be tapping at my door?” Curiously, Little went to the door and opened it to see who was there. A small, weakly character was standing there and introduced itself as Mr. FEAR. Mr. FEAR said, ”Let me in, quick, it’s really scary out here.” Little stepped aside and quick as a wink, Mr. FEAR scampered into Little’s home. Mr. FEAR was grateful and soon began telling Little about all the things to be afraid of, like relationships, the truth, people that looked different or talked differently. There was so much to be afraid of that FEAR almost never stopped chattering. Even though Mr. FEAR annoyed Little, and often made it uncomfortable living with it, over time, Little became used to having FEAR around to educate and protect it from all those scary things in life.

It wasn’t long after Mr. FEAR was settled in the home, there was a pounding at the door. Little asked FEAR to get the door, but FEAR said it was too afraid, so Little meekly opened the door and was nearly knocked over as something barged into the home, demanding a place to stay. Little asked “Who are you?” “You little weakling, I am ANGER and I won’t tolerate any insolence from you or your roommate over there. Well, both Mr. FEAR and Little Self were too afraid to stop ANGER from moving in so they just made the best of it by letting ANGER have its way whenever it wanted. Little’s little house was now hosting Mr. FEAR and ANGER and Little wondered how it was going to be able to entertain both at the same time.

Another while passed and just when Little had adjusted to living with FEAR and ANGER, there came a rapping at the door. Just as before, FEAR was afraid to open the door. This really ticked off ANGER, so not to upset ANGER any more, Little went to the door and there, huffing and puffing and seething like a dragon, was something that introduced itself as HATE. FEAR didn’t want HATE coming into the house but was afraid to do anything about it. ANGER just sat with arms folded, upset that it was disturbed by the rapping on the door but immediately recognized the intruder. ANGER had worked with HATE many times before and together, they made a formidable team. This was no match for Little Self. It would now hate it’s life, certain people or things, maybe even the whole world, and really get angry about it.

Little’s house, being quite little, was becoming crowded now with all these guests moving in. None of the guests became friends with each other but they learned to tolerate one another and together, they settled in. Time passed and Little began to have concerns about all these roommates running it’s life because life wasn’t working out so good.

One afternoon, while all the roommates were swapping stories of how they had really gotten upset over what someone said, or were afraid of being honest, or how they despised that other person, and blah, blah, blah, they were interrupted by a scratching at the door. FEAR looked at HATE and ANGER to see who was going to the door this time. HATE angrily went to the door, but when it opened the door, became very happy when it saw PREJUDICE, one of his close relatives, and invited it in without even asking permission from the other house guests. HATE liked his relationship with PREJUDICE. PREJUDICE could find humans who it didn’t like because of the color of their skin, or the way they worshiped God, or the clothes they wore or just for the way they talked. This was great as far as HATE was concerned, because PREJUDICE found these things very quickly so HATE could spend less time looking and more time hating.

With all these guests in the little house, Little Self became uncomfortable and very annoyed at all the bickering and fighting and turmoil going on in his house. Little was sorry it had ever let these guests in, let alone to stay so long. All the conflicting stories and advice were confusing and not making its life any better, perhaps much worse than it was when it was just cold and lonely and depressed. But what could be done?

Little was really forlorn and didn’t know how to get it’s house back again. One day, Little was walking down the sidewalk with shoulders slumped, head down, hands shoved deep into it’s pockets thinking about how life had dealt him a raw deal and it wasn’t his fault that it was being controlled by the awful house guests. Just then, Little saw a flash of light coming from across the street. Little looked up but didn’t see anything so dropped it’s head down again and kept walking. There it was again! This time Little saw that it was coming from a sign on a beautiful building across the street. On the sign were golden letters which said “InSpirit School of Life, Little Selves and Big Selves welcome.” Little crossed the street to get a better look and noticed light coming from within the school and other humans walking in and out, also shinning a light from them selves. Little had run into Big Selves before but did not spend much time with them because they were so different and to tell the truth, their sort of scary. Just as Little was about to turn away, a Big Self put its arm around Little and said “Welcome, come on in, we may have just what you are looking for. “

Little, feeling very unsure of itself, entered the school with the Big Self and saw many others inside, some shinning brightly, some not quite so bright and a few, kind of dark, like Little. It listened for awhile and then a miracle happened. Someone began to pray. It was a special prayer and anyone could learn how to do it so Little practiced a couple times and left the school to go back home. Well, HATE and ANGER were really upset. HATE said “I didn’t like that place, there was no one there I could relate to.” ANGER was miffed that it wasn’t able to find anything to get upset about, and then FEAR spoke. “Why would you want to do something crazy like pray, or go to this school? You might change, and you would not be your Little Self ever again. We wouldn’t even know you and neither would your friends and family.

Little listened to the house guests, I guess you could call them boarders by now rather than guests, but decided to try the prayer which the Big Selves called a”Spiritual Mind Treatment.” It was supposed to train the mind to resist all that chatter and confusion that Little heard everyday and to trust and believe in something bigger than itself. Something they called GOD or SPIRIT and by several other names.

With the help of one of the shiniest Big Selves, Little began to see the possibility of taking back its home. Over all these years Little never grew, never became strong enough to take charge and control of its life. This was beginning to feel real good.

After a particularly good prayer and a meditation, Little Self, who was by now was becoming, Little Bigger Self, was interrupted by a knock at the door. FEAR, ANGER, HATE and PREDJUDICE all frantically begged Little Bigger not to go to the door. They had been feeling neglected and they didn’t want any more house guests or distractions. Little was about to go back and sit down but noticed a familiar glow coming through the cracks around the door and curiosity got the best of it, so Little flung open the door and was immediately overcome by LOVE. The feeling was like no other it had ever felt. Suddenly, nothing else mattered but to LOVE back, so Little Bigger turned to hug HATE but HATE was already running for the back door, screaming that LOVE is its mortal enemy and the two of them could never co-exist. ANGER wasn’t so fast and when LOVE entered the house, ANGER just melted into a little pool where it dried up and was gone. PREJUDICE was backing out of the front door stuttering “I wowowould really like to stay you understand, bbbbut I, I, I really can’t live without HATE so I think I will mosey along and ggo team up with HATE again somewhere, BYE, BYE! And in a blink of an eye, PREJUDICE was gone too.

FEAR, seeing LOVE coming into the house, found the darkest place it could find and waited to see if LOVE would leave before it noticed FEAR was still there. Well this time, Bigger felt the strength LOVE gave it and started toward the dark place to confront FEAR. When FEAR heard Bigger coming, it knew the time had come to move on. FEAR didn’t go easily however. Little, even though growing into a Little Bigger Self, still had to work hard to get FEAR out of the house. FEAR clung to everything it knew. It reminded Little of all the good times they had being afraid of things, and about Little Bigger losing it’s identity if it changed and blabbed on incessantly as it was begging not to be sent away. Just when Little Bigger started to give in to FEAR’s pleas, LOVE came to the rescue again and FEAR slipped out the back into the darkness from where it had come.

Wow, thought Little Bigger, life was sure different now, not so hard, and actually enjoyable. Little Bigger Self was growing for the first time in it’s life and it actually liked being with other Big Selves better than all the Little Selves it used to hang with. Some time had passed, then, without warning, there was a knock at the door. Little Bigger looked at LOVE, starting to feel a bit of fear that maybe its old roommates had returned, but LOVE smiled and nodded toward the door, so trusting LOVE, Little Bigger opened the door. Right there, on his front doorstep, were all the friends that LOVE had invited; Joy, Truth, Light, Life, and Peace. Little Bigger flung the door open as wide as it could and let them pour into its home and thought, “This is going to be one fun party, for the rest of my life!” Each new friend added it ‘s special gift to the party and Little Bigger was so grateful for finally knowing the Truth of who it was, and finding Joy in Life and after all the struggles, felt at Peace in it’s own home. Little Bigger’s light began to shine even brighter.

There have been times when Little Bigger Self, now Much Bigger Self, hears a tapping, a scratching, a rapping, or even a pounding at the door, but Much Bigger has a body guard now. Much Bigger just sends LOVE to the door and as soon as the door opens, the bright light scatters all those old roommates away like leaves in a whirlwind.

There is a No Vacancy sign on the house because today, every room is filled with all the new friends that LOVE introduced and like Little learned during those early days at the InSpirit School of Life, practice, prayer and belief in GOD are the nutrients for growth and taking control of it’s life. Little is all grown up to a Big Self now and life is much easier, more fun and full of LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.