The Cart of Emotions
“A girl was walking with her father when suddenly he stopped at a turn in the road. After a brief silence he asked: “ What do you hear, daughter?”
The girl stopped and listened closely. After a few seconds, she answered: “ Dad, I hear the sound of a cart coming closer.”
“Very good,” said her father. “You’re right, an empty cart is coming our way.”
She asked in awe: “ How do you know the cart is empty if you haven’t seen it yet?”
Then the father answered: “ It’s easy to tell when a cart is empty by the noise it makes. The emptier the cart, the more noise it makes.”
The girl became an adult and every time she saw a person boasting about what they had, she could hear her father saying: “ The emptier the cart, the more noise it makes.”
-Folktale-
Now, try to picture the cart.
We can assume that the emptier the cart is, the nicer and more showy its design will probably be.
Maybe it has great jingling bells in bright colors, perfectly clean, without a speck of dust or mud from the road on it. As if it had forgotten its true purpose or what it was made for. I can see it arrogantly rattling along its way. Making a lot of noise.
The same thing happens with people. The emptier they are on the inside, the more noise their presence will make. As if they were bells tolling in the distance.
People with empty souls and no inner richness cover their deficiencies with empty speeches, fill their hands with valuable things, and waste their time with trivialities, because they yearn to feel validated.
They warn you of their coming like the seventh cavalry, because their worst fear is no one noticing them.
It’s possible that their carts are so empty, they’ll want to fill them at the expense of yours. And these energy thefts are very subtle, but they can seriously damage your cargo.
Protect yourself from these noisy people. Learn to identify them. Like the father in the tale, recognize them by their noise.
Assuming that we don’t want an empty cart, the next step is deciding what we want to fill it with. But be careful. If we overfill the cart, the weight might strain the cart and break it.
You can choose what goes in your cart, but remember, success lies within the harmony of the whole.
Don’t carry too much in it, think of the space. Take only the right and necessary emotions. Wellbeing depends on this balance.
Be sure to carry love, joy, sadness, awe and pain. The basic emotions are necessary. None of them can exist without the rest. To develop one you have to include the other four.
The basic emotions weigh a lot, so your cart will make noticeably less noise.
Beware of including emotions that will drain your energy, like jealousy, envy or resentment. They will tarnish the authenticity of the true emotions. If you want to lighten the load, don’t think twice about getting rid of them.
Most important of all, always carry humility. Humility is what distinguishes a full cart from a loud empty one. Never let pride make a hole in yours, because humility creates while pride destroys.
Don’t carry fifteen friends aboard. Take one that is worth twenty. Someone to be with you and help you experience that love, joy and awe, and to lend you a hand while you feel sadness and pain. Don’t waste space.
Let go of the trophies and medals you’ve earned. Get rid of them. Keep in mind that excess weight could make you stumble and even lose your way. True achievements are kept within the heart, so forget those tin cups.
This way you’ll have the most whole cart possible. It will be so quiet, you might even emit a halo of mystery and the fellow walkers will want to figure out what you’re carrying so quietly. What could be the treasure hidden inside?
Letting them discover your secrets is where true humility lies. Ironically, your cart will be the most beautiful of all.
Don’t live so that people feel your presence. Live so they feel your absence.
