It is 12:57 am Saturday morning Friday night 10/10/2026. What follows is an evolving collection of metaphors, similes, parables, short fables, affirmations, inspirations, brief poems, and other reflections. Some are wholly original. Others may have begun as fragments from something once heard, read, or seen on a television screen, a movie screen, or across the internet, only to be reshaped by memory, experience, and meaning.
Whatever their origin, each piece is remixed and tailored to the season, struggle, insight, or revelation I am living through at the time. My hope is that these words reach you with the same depth and impact with which they arrive in me.
Let us begin.
01. The Glassmaker and the Man With a Hammer
A Parable of Creation, Destruction, and the Illusion of Greatness
For years, the glassmaker studied his craft, sacrificing time, resources, and comfort to master the delicate art of transforming molten glass into beauty. Even after achieving mastery, a single masterpiece demanded hours of patience, precision, and skill.
Then came a man with no craft of his own, carrying only a hammer.
With one careless swing, he reduced the masterpiece to shards. Proud of his accomplishment, he declared himself the greater talent, for what took the glassmaker hours to create, he had destroyed in a heartbeat.
The glassmaker looked upon the shattered glass and calmly replied:
“You mistake speed for skill and destruction for achievement. A lifetime may be required to create what a fool can destroy in a second. But the power to destroy has never been proof of the wisdom to create.”
02. The Predator in the Plumage of a Protector
A Parable of Deception and Disguised Intentions
Like a predator cloaked in the colors of its surroundings, they disguise their intentions in the language of virtue. Their questions masquerade as a search for clarity, but seek only vulnerabilities. Their demands for accountability conceal an appetite for destruction.
They claim to protect the flock while sharpening their claws against those who would teach it to fly. For their greatest fear is not that the flock will be harmed, but that it will discover its own wings and no longer need their protection.
Beware the predator who promises to protect you from everything except its own appetite.
03. Terrell and the Burden of Frienemies
A Parable of Kindness, Exploitation, and the Fear of Independence
There once was a boy named Terrell who, out of kindness, offered to carry the belongings of his injured friends whenever they traveled to and from town.
Each day, his friends raced ahead while Terrell struggled beneath their burdens. Rather than thank him, they laughed and called him slow.
As Terrell grew older, he grew stronger. Soon, even while carrying their belongings, he could keep pace with them. Seeing this, his friends quietly added more to his load until he fell behind once again. And once again, they laughed.
Years passed, and something unexpected happened. The burdens meant to slow Terrell had made him stronger. The weight had built his endurance, the journeys had sharpened his speed, and the responsibility had taught him discipline, organization, and resourcefulness.
His friends soon realized a troubling truth. The boy they had mocked for being weak had become stronger and more capable than all of them. Worse still, they had grown so dependent upon his labor that they could scarcely carry their own belongings.
So they did everything they could to keep Terrell from recognizing his strength. They called his burden a duty, his sacrifice a virtue, and his obedience the foundation of their friendship.
But one day, Terrell awakened to the truth.
When he recognized his exploitation, they called his awareness division.
When he refused to carry their belongings, they called his independence hate.
And when he finally traveled faster and farther than any of them could, they called his excellence cheating.
Terrell simply smiled and continued on his journey, understanding at last what his friends had feared all along.
They had mistaken his kindness for weakness, his service for submission, and his patience for ignorance.
And the very burdens they had placed upon him to keep him behind had prepared him to leave them behind.
The Wisdom Within
Beware those who call your awakening division, your independence hatred, and your excellence unfairness. They may not fear what you have become nearly as much as they fear what they can no longer make you carry.