Qui vult caedere canem, facile invenit fustem.
(Anonymous)

pron = kwee woolt KAI-deh-reh KAH-nem FAH-kih-leh in-WAY-nit FOOS-tehm.

The one who wants to kill a dog easily finds a stick.

Comment: This proverb deftly articulates the difference in what is really going on within us, at times, and how we craft that dynamic to appear to the outside world.

Want to kill a dog? Make it look like the stick fell into your hands and compelled the killing. IN other words, it's never about the stick. It's always about the "wanting" and what, at an even more secret level, moves us to want to kill the dog.

So, for me, this is the hard message: when I am inclined to blame my circumstances on anything outside myself, I am doing that SO THAT I won't see what is really at stake, what is really moving me, what I really feel. It's a very difficult place to be in. It is difficult because what I am inclined to blame outside of me (the stick) is so very convenient and it feels so right to blame the stick. And, it is difficult because I really already know that it's NOT the stick. And, it's difficult because, really, all I have to do is stop and ask the "deep-within" what it is, really, that is disturbing me. ANd, it is difficult, because if I ask my "deep-within" it will speak to me, almost immediately. And finally, it is difficult, because I have to choose to accept the answer that comes.

Why do I really want to kill the dog?

If I don't ask my "deep-within" what the true answer for my wanting to kill the dog is, then I will find the next convenient stick and kill the dog.

The dog will suffer, surely. And so will the person I use as the stick. And finally, I will suffer immensely, because I will remain a prisoner of myself.