Tale Of Two Snails

A short story on our withdrawal and opening up nature

There were two snails — brothers. One of them appeared free and relaxed always. It was the elder one. But the younger one was always stressed and anxious. It struggled to breathe freely let alone living freely.

One day out of desperation the younger snail asked the elder one: How are you able to live so free and peacefully. I am fed up with my life. I don't know what to do with myself.

To which, the elder one replied: I was also like you. In fact, I was miserable and suffering for a long time. But then one day, just like you, after a period of sheer frustration it slowly began to dawn upon me — the secret for a peaceful life.

Younger: And what is it?

Elder: The secret is within you, me, and every other snail. But we can only access it when we stop denying our suffering born out of ignorance.

Younger: But I can't stop my suffering.

Elder: I did not ask you to do that. In fact, I am not asking you to do anything. I said we need to stop denying our unconscious suffering if at all we have to come back to our natural peaceful state.

Younger: I am not denying suffering.

Elder: Yes, that’s a good start. But that isn’t quite enough.

Younger: Then?

Elder: Secrets can only be accessed through suffering, but you need to make a big shift — a shift from unconscious to conscious suffering. You will have to make peace with existing suffering and not wish it will be gone, but willing to consciously suffer (if there is suffering) for accessing the secrets that are deep within you.

Younger: Please explain more.

Elder: Okay. You need to make peace with your snailness — our opening up and shutting down (withdrawal) nature. I get that you are always or more frequently seen to be closed and shut down. And I see it’s bothering you too much. You think you are a loser for not being opened up always. But trust me, that was the case with me too. Now that I had made peace with my opening up and shutting down nature, I do not suffer unnecessarily.

The problem with you, I think, is you are trying hard to get rid of your shutting down nature, and so you are trying too much to make sure you are always opened up. And it is this resistance to your own nature or fear of shutting down that is keeping you stuck in misery or in shut down mode. There is no point in resisting your nature as it is as of now. What you resist persists.

You do not have to feel ashamed of your nature. It isn’t a mistake that sometimes when it’s too much we tend to shut down. No one gets to decide what’s that too much for you. No one can advise you on this matter unless they had gone through the exact pain as yours. Now, back to your issue, since you see shutting down as something shameful or as a lack of strength, you waste too much energy trying to resist bad feelings and bad outcomes out of fear of shutting down, and it is this unnecessary fight that keeps you shut down — that’s just how nature works.

When you make peace with your nature, that is, sometimes we tend to shut down and it takes time for us to open up again, then you will be open to seeing your real strength as you wouldn’t be unnecessarily shutting down out of fear of shutting down itself. Also, you would be able to recover much faster. As your tendency to resist or hate your own shutting down nature melts away in time, you will be less stuck and would feel freer.

You would realize that you do not have to do anything to get out of your closed down state, left alone you will come out of it naturally. In fact, it is your forcing and pushing yourself to come out, out of some fear of being seen as a loser snail that is keeping you stuck. Trying to convince yourself that you aren’t anxious or depressed does not help, at least in the long run–self-deception backfires sooner or later. Do not worry about other snail’s outward show–all that glitters is not necessarily gold.

And bear this in your mind, you would still tend to respond as always until the tendency burns away on its own. Old habits die hard. The energy we took from life for unnecessary usage out of ignorance will have to be paid back gradually with patience and cultivation of wisdom — conscious process. There is no hurry. Hurrying is still unwillingness or inability to accept the way things are by nature. You cannot even hurry to gain maturity or begin to accept things, you can only begin to open up to seeing things as they are as of now, and let things work out at their own natural pace.

Upon hearing the message from the elder snail, the younger one began to ponder on it and slowly began to open up for its daily experience.

“Snail is slow, smooth and succulent but vulnerable. With a wet and luscious tongue, it maneuvers its way across thorns and thistles without harm.”― Vincent Okay Nwachukwu, Weighty ’n’ Worthy African Proverbs — Volume 1