A Snake, a Fishing Pole, and a Passerby
You know that thing that’s continually chasing you that you can’t seem to outrun? Where’s the power source?
Growing up my dad could be quite the prankster. One summer evening while camping at our regular summer weekend getaway, my dad, chilling in his lawn chair with a Bud Light in one hand and a Winston Red in another, noticed a dead snake in the road. It was still just enough intact that at first glance, could still pass as alive and well. And with that noticing, he formulated an entertaining idea for himself.
He collected the snake, gathered his fishing pole, and proceeded to hook the snake onto the end of the fishing pole line, chuckling to himself as he did so. Then he sat and waited. You see, the evening was when many people in the campground would take a walk, visiting with the other campers as they did so. As we often camped with friends and family, my dad just knew this would be a fabulous time to play a prank on one of his friends that he knew would be by (and who also despised snakes of all varieties and stages of life- or death!). Dad placed the snake attached to the line in the road and waited. Soon, the friend headed his way, and as he got close, dad began to reel that line in, making the dead snake come alive as it slithered in the road. At the same time, he hollered at this friend to watch out for the snake coming at him. Sure enough, that grown man began to spontaneously dance in the road, whooping, hollering and eventually running for his very life! Mission accomplished. My dad laughed so hard at his friend’s reaction that he could barely breathe. The friend also found it hilarious after he realized his life wasn’t in any actual danger. But was that fun enough? No.
Soon they both were placing that snake in the road to prank the walkers. It was great. Until it wasn’t. Somehow and some way, one particular passerby got too close to the action, and, in her startled state, actually got her shoe tangled in the fishing line. In her fear, she did not realize this, and as she ran, the snake got closer. The faster she went, the faster the snake went. It was quite the campground circle fiasco, as you can probably imagine. Runners, chasing snakes, people hollering, and mass confusion. Finally, the poor lady realized the snake was not alive, that it had entangled her shoe, that she was in fact the one supplying the power for it to “chase” her, and that to be free, she could simply cut the line. The snake was deader than ever, no longer had any attachment to her, and she could walk freely, leaving the dead snake behind.
Do you know what she didn’t do? She didn’t see that she could cut the line but choose to keep it attached anyway. She also didn’t choose to pick the snake up and carry it with her to remind her of the experience, or to compare other things in the road to make sure it too was not a dead snake. She didn’t go back and revisit the snake the entire time she camped there. And she didn’t keep running as if the snake were still chasing her. She did give my dad and his friend a good cussing- and rightly so, although to them it was worth it.
What’s right at your heels, attached to you, chasing you? That thing that controls your direction, your feelings, your responses? Your snake could be any number of challenges- a relationship, a health matter, a past choice, a future decision, a feeling of a lack of purpose or direction, a life transition or an unexpected loss. Maybe, just maybe, the snake in your life isn’t actually the circumstance itself, but the voice that plays on repeat in your head IN the circumstance. . .
The snake may be there, but are you choosing to give it the power to come alive and direct your life and decisions? If you have found yourself entangled with the snake, do you see where you can cut its power off, and use that energy yourself in a different way? What way WOULD you use that energy that has been funneled into the snake in your life?
You may be saying to me- you don’t understand. I actually have this conflicted relationship, this health matter, this fork in the road, or this voice that plays on repeat in my head reminding me of my shortcomings. It’s real for me, not some dead snake. And to that I would say you are absolutely right. It is real. It is challenging. And, if we’re being honest, it CAN be freaking HARD. AND, in the hard, what are those things you have choice in? Where can you cut lines that need to be cut? Where can you stop for a moment and really look at the circumstance from another perspective? What are those things you can lay down, those things you can stop revisiting, those things that you are living as though you are still in it, but that transpired long ago?
What in your life are you giving power to that without that power, would be just a dead snake in the road?
I invite you to just take a moment, reflect, and see what may be hanging out in your life.
If you would like support in navigating anything that is revealed, I’m only a few clicks away for a conversation.