A rampaging lion roams the jungle, teeth bared, on the lookout for his prey. The call of the wild has brought him here and naught can stop him now. A lamb caught in the thicket bemoans her lot - too loud, he hears it and swoops down upon her tender frame. But lo - what song disturbs the scene of imminent destruction? A warbling sound from the trees above distracts them both. And then these words are spoken: "Release this lamb and you will be fed. For it does not belong here. It is the lamb of God."

The warbling stops, a strange silence pervades the scene, and in that silence something happens. Love passes through the jungle, its radiant glow enfolds the lion who stops in his tracks. What feeling is this? A light falls upon him and in that light he feels no hunger, his war-like passion subsides and something new fills him - peace. He looks again, the lamb is gone, even its scent has disappeared and the thicket is empty.

He sits and rests, mouth closed, the light subsides, the sounds of the jungle resume and there before him is a carcass, appetising, ready to consume. He looks again - and thinks carefully. “I will eat that later, but first there is much to reflect upon".

And so a lion became the first king of the jungle because he was king of himself.
  
Leo Tolstoy


© Richard Lawrence 2014