There once lived a free-spirited monkey in a beautiful jungle. He spent his days wandering the wilderness, climbing trees, eating delicious fruits and resting. While wandering around, he came very close to the nearby village. He looked inside a house in the village and saw a bowl of red ripe apples. He couldn’t hold his urge to eat those beautiful-looking fruits, so he grabbed one in each hand and ran back into the forest. He sniffed the apples, but they smelled nothing. He tried to eat them, but he hurt his teeth. These apples were made of wood, but they looked delicious. When the other monkeys of the jungle saw the apples, he held them even tighter.
He proudly admired his new possessions as he wandered the jungle. The wooden apples glistened red in the sun and seemed perfect to him. He was so enticed by them that he even forgot about his hunger.
He was walking near a fruit tree when the smell of the ripe fruit reminded him of his hunger. He wanted to grab a ripe banana and eat it, but he had the apples in his hands. He couldn’t let go of the wooden apples to reach for the bananas. He was too afraid to lose the apples and felt the need to protect them. The monkey was very proud of the apples, but he was a less happy monkey while walking along the forest trails.
As he held the apples longer, they started to feel heavier. The poor little monkey thought about keeping it down for a while but letting go of such valuable things seemed crazy.
The poor monkey was unhappy. He was exhausted and hungry and couldn’t climb trees or collect fruit with his hands full. The more he looked at the fruits in the jungle, the more he grew hungry. He finally gave up, dropped the wooden apples, and reached for his meal. He was happy again.
Like the little monkey, we sometimes carry things that seem too valuable to let go. We humans, too, seem to take and hold on to our image, pride, possessions, wealth and status but forget to enjoy the most essential things in life; love, compassion, friends and family.
