Trapped

So often our possessions possess us. In the novel Where the Red Fern Grows, a grandfather builds a raccoon trap for his grandson. He cuts a hole in a log, puts a shiny object in it, and then adds some nails to make the hole smaller than the object inside. The raccoon will reach into the hole and grab the object but will be trapped because the object is too big to get out of the hole. The grandson points out that all the raccoon would have to do is let go of the shiny object, and then he’d be free from the trap. His grandfather laughs and then explains, “Once he reaches in and gets hold of that tin, he’s caught, because he will never open his paw” (Wilson Rawls, Where the Red Fern Grows [New York: Random House, 1961], 56–69). What shiny object in your life have you reached for, and now you’re trapped? Do you know that if you just let go, if you just surrender all, you’ll be set free?