Knots

The knot. 

It begins by being useful. It binds and holds things together. It can be removed easily and so there is no cause for worry either.

If you pull an end and the knot gets removed easily, fine, but pull it the wrong way... That's it. Especially when you are in a hurry to untie it, everything you do will only tighten the knot and seal its, and your, fate completely. 

And then, there are some knots that are formed without our realising. We ignore them because the string is not needed immediately, maybe, or the string may seem useless, or, because we think we can always remove them.

 

With time, they tighten, becoming very binding. A little wetness can bind the knot together so tightly that we cannot even know how to begin to unravel it. Finally, scissors maybe the only choice to cut the string loose.

Have you seen how free a loose string looks? Without that stubborn knot? Free to flow in any direction, very restful, just lying, with nothing to hold. It may have already served it purpose and may have no further use. It may have potential for further use. Or it may be ignored, pushed around and finally thrown. But nothing affects it. There is no tautness in it.  

But if the knot is there, that string is still not fully free. It carries that knot around like a battle scar. That knot shows. And it tells you that the string is not fully free.

A naughty (knotty) string, even when free, may still go and bind itself to something, unwilling to let it go. To free it, the only choice is to cut it, to pull it apart and throw the bits away.

Aren't knots in our lives much like this? Some bind us, but if we can't untie the knot at will, then it tightens into a stranglehold. It needs to be cut, but its hold on us still remains like a scar or a wound.

Sometimes, even if we cut it loose, we let other threads bind us, maybe more intricately. The more we try to break free, like a deer caught in a net gets further entangled as it struggles, so also these threads weave a web that tie us completely. The more we struggle to free ourselves, the more it tightens its hold on us. Sadly, sometimes we don't even try but willingly wrap it tightly around us, finding security and comfort. We tie ourselves up in knots, one knot at a time. But we start wondering why we are suffocated and unhappy. We struggle to break free, but fall into the next knotty situation.

Just see that abandoned string, knotless and free, loose and relaxed. Is it telling you something?

Do what is needed, tie loose knots that you can remove at will and sit back to enjoy yourself the rest of the time. There is no comfort in those knots. They have a purpose, and when the purpose is served, let it go.