One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said: 'My son, the battle is between 'two wolves' inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.'

The grandson thought about it for a minute, and then asked his grandfather: 'Which wolf wins?'

The old Cherokee simply replied: 'The one you feed".

The following is written by my good friend Sue Brundege of Self Made Self (http://www.selfmadeself.com). I'd like to share this as I find the surfing metaphor to be an excellent way to conceptualize one's approach to life's journey. - Roger
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I had an inspired conversation recently with a friend about luck and opportunity. What came out of this conversation was a metaphor that, for me, describes how we attract wonderful things into our life.

It's all about surfing. Imagine yourself as an expert surfer, paddling your custom board into the ocean, watching and waiting for the next big wave so you can stand up and feel the thrill as you ride it back to shore. If you think about it, life is a whole lot like this.

The ocean is a vast, tremendous source of power that surges in waves that swell, break, and recede in an endless cycle. Life does that too. Events and people come and go throughout our life. Some pass by without affecting us; others create opportunities that have great impact on us. Successful people consciously seek out and grab these opportunities, just as bold surfers jump onto the best waves to ride.

Preparedness. Choosing your board, waxing its surface, checking your leash, knowing the terrain, watching the tidal charts, talking to other surfers. All these things help surfers get the most out of their next trip into the water. In much the same way, we have to understand our goals, know what we have, what we need, and how others can help us to capitalize on the opportunities that come our way.

Watchful patience. Surfers spend ninety percent of their time paddling, ten percent actually surfing. Paddling is like routine living, taking care of business every day. But while surfers are paddling, they're always on the lookout for the next big wave. Their "everyday business" is about positioning themselves for new opportunities.

Attention to timing. Surfers with good timing are rewarded with the best waves. The best season, the best week, the best day, the best hour, the best...right now! They seem to intuitively know when and where to go. Watchful patience means going to the beach when the best waves are crashing, and knowing when it's not worth the effort. Being sensitive to timing, for example, can mean the difference between a smooth job transition and one that's bumpy and frustrating.

Willingness to risk. Of course, what sets true surfers apart from most people is their ability to overcome a very natural aversion to drowning. Fortunately, most opportunities we encounter don't involve extreme risk-taking, but tolerating our fear and acting in spite of it is necessary to take advantage of anything new. Of course, surfers do pick their beaches based on their skill set and tolerance for risk. Some surf the Delaware shore; others brave 20-footers off the coast of Hawaii. You can choose the size of your waves in your life but know that, big or small, you can probably handle more than you think you can.

Practiced balance. Successfully shifting from a kneeling to a standing position on a nine-foot board while 800,000 gallons of water crash all around you is no easy task. It requires balance and finesse, acquired from repeated practice gauging and adjusting for the ocean's movement. In life, the "lucky" are those who strive to keep their life in balance. Healthy habits, positive thinking, nurturing relationships, a fulfilling career, and time to relax all contribute to a readiness for bigger things. It's hard to catch a wave when you're doing all you can just to stay afloat.

Weathering the wipeouts. You're not really a surfer until you've wiped out, big time. Despite all preparedness, timing, balance, and practice, you're going to end up in a wave you can't control. Does that mean you're a bad surfer and should give up? Certainly not. Do mishaps, mistakes, and miscalculations make you a bad person and you should give up? Again, no! Surfers assess what happened, make adjustments, and attribute the rest to the incredible power of the ocean. Try that line of thinking, and see how easy it becomes to get up, shake the sand from your shorts, and try again.

Cherishing the cycles. Surfing is about communing with the cyclic nature of the ocean, about catching and experiencing that next great wave. Every wave is different, each one requiring a new way of being on the board and in the water. But each one passes, requiring the surfer to release it and get ready for the next one. So after you set your goals and seize your opportunities, let go of the outcome and allow yourself to see the process as part of the thrill.

Think about how you see opportunities in your life. Do you let them pass you by, one after another? Or are you willing to paddle out past the surf, stand up on your board, and partner with the tremendous power of life? If so, what wave will you ride next?

Self Made Toolbox is published monthly by Sue Brundege of Self Made Self (http://www.selfmadeself.com)

Copyright © 2007 Self Made Self - Sue Brundege. All rights reserved.

This is a perfect moment. It's a perfect moment because I have been inspired to say a gigantic prayer. I've been roused to unleash a  divinely greedy, apocalyptically healing prayer for each and every one of you- even those of you who don't believe in the power of prayer. And so I am starting to pray right now to the God of Gods ... the God beyond all Gods ... the Girlfriend of God ... the Teacher of God ... the Goddess who invented God.  

DEAR GODDESS, you who never kill but only change: I pray that my exuberant, suave, and accidental words will move you to shower ferocious blessings down on everyone who reads this benediction. I pray that you will give them what they don't even know they need-not just the boons they think they want but everything they've always been afraid to even imagine or ask for. 

DEAR GODDESS, you wealthy anarchist burning heaven to the ground: Many of the divine chameleons out there don't even know that their souls will live forever. So please use your brash magic to help them see that they are all wildly creative geniuses too big for their own personalities. Guide them to realize that they are all completely different from what they've been led to believe about themselves, and more exciting than they can possibly imagine. Make it illegal, immoral, irrelevant, unpatriotic, and totally  tasteless for them to be in love with anyone or anything that's no good for them. 

O GODDESS, you who give us so much love and pain mixed together that our morality is always on the verge of collapsing: I beg you to cast a boisterous love spell that will nullify all the dumb ideas, bad decisions, and nasty conditioning that have ever cursed the wise and sexy virtuosos out there. Remove, banish, annihilate, and laugh into oblivion any jinx that has  clung to them, no matter how long they've suffered from it, and even if they have become accustomed or addicted to its ugly companionship. Please conjure an aura of protection around them so that they will  receive an early warning if they are ever about to act in such a way as to bring another hex or plague into their lives in the future. 

DEAR GODDESS, sweet Goddess, you sly universal virus with no freaking opinion: Please help all the personal growth addicts out there to become disciplined enough to go crazy in the name of creation, not destruction. Teach them the difference between oppressive self-control and liberating self-control. Awaken in them the power to do the half-right thing when it is  impossible to do the totally right thing. Arouse the Wild Woman within them-even if they're men. 

DEAR GODDESS, you pregnant slut who scorns all mediocre longing: I pray that you will inspire all the compassionate rascals communing  with this prayer to kick their own asses and wash their own brains. Provoke them to throw away or give away all the things they own that encourage them to believe that they are better than anyone else. Show them how much fun it is to brag about what they cannot do and do not have. Give them bigger, better, more original sins and wilder, wetter, more interesting problems. Most of all, Goddess, brainwash them with your freedom so that they never love their own pain more than anyone else's pain. 

O GODDESS, you wildly disciplined, radically curious, shockingly  friendly, fanatically balanced, mysteriously truthful, teasingly healing,  lyrically logical master of rowdy bliss: Cultivate in yourself a fervent yearning for the intimate  companionship of these budding messiahs. Play with them every day. Answer their questions. Listen to their stories. Inspire them to love you so much  they lose all their hatred forever. 

DEAR GODDESS, you psychedelic mushroom cloud at the center of all our brains: Bless the insanely poised creators out there with lucid dreams while  they are wide awake. Provide them with their own spin doctors, and vacuum cleaners for their magic carpets, and solar-powered sex toys that work even in the dark. Give them a knack for avoiding other people's hells, and a thousand  masks that all represent their true feelings, and secret admirers who are not psychotic stalkers. Arrange for a racehorse to be named after them, or an underground river, or a thousand-year-old storm on Saturn. Teach them to be their own prophets and pray to themselves and right their own wrongs and sing their own songs and be their own wives and save their own lives. 

DEAR GODDESS, you riotously tender, hauntingly reassuring, orgiastically sacred feeling that is even now running through all of our soft, warm animal bodies: I pray that you provide all the original sinners out there with a  license to bend and even break all rules, laws, and traditions that keep them apart from the things they love. Show them how to purge the wishy-washy wishes that distract them from their daring, dramatic, divine desires. And teach them that they can have anything they want if they'll only ask for it in an unselfish way.  And now dear God of Gods, God beyond all Gods, Girlfriend of God, Teacher of God, Goddess who invented God, I bring this prayer to a  close, trusting that in these mysterious moments you have begun to change everyone out there in the exact way they've needed to change in order to become the gorgeous geniuses they were born to be. Amen. Awomen. 

P.S. Goddess: And please also give them each an emerald green parachute, ruby slippers, a canoe covered with jewels, a black-market orchid and a bouquet of organic broccoli, a donkey clown piñata full of crickets, a protective gargoyle lifted from the Chartres Cathedral, a  guitar string actually played by Jimi Hendrix, a strawberry chocolate cake  baked in the shape of a question mark, a human DNA map drawn up by the Human Genome Project, fistfuls of sparklers, a bottle of holy water from the River Jordan, photos of lightning on a giant poster, a    refrigerator magnet cast in the likeness of the Dalai Lama, and the key of life accidentally placed inside a box of Cracker Jack.  +