Imagine this: you’re peacefully rowing a boat in the middle of a quiet lake. Suddenly, another boat starts drifting toward you. You call out, try to steer away, but it keeps coming closer — until it’s about to crash. You feel your anger rising. “Who’s this person? Why are they so careless?”
But then, you notice… the other boat is empty.
And just like that, your anger dissolves. Because there’s no one to be angry at. No one to blame.
That’s when it hits you — most of the things that upset us in life are like that empty boat. We get angry, offended, or hurt, thinking someone intended to do us wrong. We make up stories in our minds: “They’re ignoring me.” “They said that to insult me.” “They did that to make me feel small.”
But what if… they didn’t?
What if it wasn’t about us at all?
How much of our suffering is self-inflicted — born not from what people actually do, but from what we think they mean?
Sometimes, people drift into our path because of their own storms — their stress, confusion, pain, or distraction. Just like that empty boat, they aren’t out to hit us. They’re just… floating through life, same as us.
The next time someone’s words or actions hurt me, I want to pause and ask myself:
“Is this an empty boat?”
If it is, I can choose peace instead of anger. Understanding instead of resentment. Detachment instead of reaction.
Because maybe the real freedom lies not in controlling others, but in not letting their “boats” disturb the stillness of our lake.
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