The Levee

 As a kid growing up in rural Eastern Arkansas with farms and fields as far as the eye can see, I am all too familiar with "levees." They are built to either hold water in a field or keep it out. Farmers in that part of Arkansas rely on the water to grow rice, soybeans, and cotton, major cash crops for the farmers in my home state.

One of my favorite bands, Led Zeppelin, wrote a song called "When The Levee Breaks," which is one of my all-time favorite rock songs. And I was listening to it the other night, and I thought about what levees are intended to do. It made me think about the "levees" we build in our lives. Levees are meant to protect us and keep things out, or worse yet, levees that are built to keep things in.

Often people build walls in their hearts when they get hurt or wounded, but I prefer the word levee better because I am an Arkansan and a kid from a farming family and a farming community. 

When someone wounds us, we tend to retreat to an inner place, a place that we think no one can reach. And the more hurt we are, the bigger the levee is. We avoid contact with others and isolate ourselves when we get hurt. It's just like when my dog got run over by my little sister; he ran himself out of his collar when I tried to grab him to give him aid. He crawled under our deck and hid for days until he was ready to come out and face the world. He laid there for a few weeks, licking his wounds. And if I am being truthful with you, I would say I do the same thing when I am hurting or when I have been wronged by someone. When we are hurt by someone, our instinct is to put up our guard and hide out. But the levees don't always protect us. 

Just ask the folks in New Orleans how well those "big" levees protect when a hurricane like Katrina comes in. If you live long enough, you will face storms in your life that will toss and blow you all over the place. That hurricane could be cancer, a loss of a job, a spouse that won't stay put, or the loss of a loved one. Any of these things can and will cause us to build our levee a little bit higher and think that the next time it won't get to me cause I have my levee to protect me.

Friends, this is a lie straight from the devil. No levee or wall can keep the pain out. There is no amount of alcohol, drugs, or whatever you can think of that can take away the memories or soothe the ache that lies deep inside your heart. You can't run away from it. It will always be there waiting to eat you up all over again. You can only face it down. These things are like grade school bullies; you can only face them, deal with them, and inevitably make peace with them. You may end up scarred, and I can assure you that you will forever change, but change isn't always bad. As bad as a flooded field is for a farmer, the following season can often produce the most significant crop because of the things that flood can leave behind in the dirt. 

Now, what "levee" have you built in your life? What hurt are you carrying that you can't let go of? What burden do you tote around like a mill stone around your neck?

All I can say is that in my experience when you finally break down and deal with the things that plague you, the relief will hit you more challenging than the levee did. You will sit back and wonder why didn't I do this sooner. I know I did, and I know I still do. You don't get the results you need by focusing on the results. You get the desired results by focusing on the actions that produce the results.