Circling

As a small child my parents would read to me from A.A. Milne's stories. One of the stories I remember best is when Pooh and Piglet decided to go hunting for Woozles. As they walk through the snow to where the think the Woozles are hiding they see, just ahead, a pair of tracks, side by side, and decide that these are the marks left by two Woozles, a big one and a small one. Going a little further they see that there are now four sets of tracks, and they begin to feel a little anxious. Then, a short while later they see that there are now six sets of tracks…

We know, of course, that they're walking in a circle and the tracks are their own, but the two animals become more and more concerned. As a child I laughed at this, feeling superior to these silly creatures.

As an adult, though, I found that there was something I could learn from this, since this is exactly what adults do when they're anxious. We let our minds circle around and around a problem, and as we do this we frighten ourselves with the marks left on our minds, caused by our own imaginations. Problems seem to get get bigger until they are terrifying. But it is all of our own creation.

At a higher level, too, this comparison can be helpful. Most of us, when we are facing a situation, tend to resort to this circling action. We're looking for a better way, we're looking for an easier way, we're looking for a way forward that will hurt us and others less. And while we do this we're circling the problem, making it larger, losing sleep.

The bottom line is that there is only one way forward, and that is straight ahead. But circling is what we do when we're afraid.