Wendy K. Laidlaw

And every day she communicates a little bit with the goldfish, which is swimming around and pretty happy to be there.

And then one day she realized the water is getting very murky because the process of the inner life of the goldfish is making the water murky and she has to clean the water.

So she goes, what do I do?

And then she realized, oh, I'll run the water in the bath.

I'll put the goldfish in the warmish water of the bath and I'll clean the bowl and then put the goldfish back.

So she's cleaning the bowl, which is like your potted plant situation.

And then when she goes back to get the goldfish, which is in now an ocean of water compared to the bowl.

And the goldfish is swimming in the exact same circle that it was swimming in when it was in the bowl.

And she stopped and realized that.

In my life, I'm swimming in the same size circle and I'm afraid to get into the bigger waters of life.

And that's another reason why I'm lonely.

And so I thought that was a great little story about transformation.

And then what it brings up, which you're pointing at, like I'm imagining you with a potted plant and going, I just did this.

That's the voice of the ego.

The ego wants to be in control.

Yes.

And yet the ego is completely unsatisfied and unsatisfying.

And the soul or the deep self, if you want to talk in psychological terms, the tension is between the limits of the ego and the limitless qualities of the deep self.

And the plant in the pot is a perfect example of it, but also the goldfish.

And so the first thing is to realize we're all swimming in circles that are too small.