Once upon a time there was a young Gazelle living
with his family on the plains of Africa.
He kept smelling a haunting fragrance, one that caused him
stress, anxiety, and endless worry. So he went to his Granny
and said, ”Granny? I keep smelling a haunting fragrance that
is causing me great stress, anxiety, and worry. Where is this
aroma coming from?”
Granny said, ”Well I don’t know. We all live on this savanna and
no one else seems to be smelling it. Why don’t you go and
investigate? Go smell all the other animals and find out
where it’s coming from.”
So off he went in pursuit of ”that smell.”
As he approached the lion, the lion was confused.
Gazelles are supposed to run from lions, not approach them.
As a result of this change in nature, the lions prey drive failed
to kick in.
The Gazelle sniffed all around the lion…no smell.
The lion watched the Gazelle casually walk away.
The next animal he encountered was a 600 pound
gazelle-eating tiger. Again, confusion caused a failure
of the tiger’s prey drive. The Gazelle sniffed all around the
tiger and found no haunting smell.
One by one the gazelle sniffed every animal
on the savanna. He simply could not identify the
source of this debilitating oder.
He returned to his Granny depressed and dejected.
“Granny, I sniffed every animal in the land and could not
find the source of this awful smell.”
Granny looked at him and asked, ”Did you sniff your
own hooves?”
The young Gazelle slowly lifted his hoof to his nose.
THERE IT WAS! THAT SMELL that caused him so much
stress, anxiety, worry, inner conflict, and turmoil.
It didn’t come from the lions or tigers, or any of the real dangers in life.
It came from himself.
Upon his new revelation, he pranced around shouting with joy,
”It comes from me! It comes from me! It comes from me!”
Then Granny said, ”And you can wash it off anytime you’d like.”