{"id":125,"date":"2009-06-24T09:34:09","date_gmt":"2009-06-24T09:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/06\/a-parable-of-change-by-portia-nelson.html"},"modified":"2009-06-24T09:34:09","modified_gmt":"2009-06-24T09:34:09","slug":"a-parable-of-change-by-portia-nelson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/06\/a-parable-of-change-by-portia-nelson.html","title":{"rendered":"A Parable of Change, Growth and Turning Things Around"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

There Is a Hole in My Sidewalk:\u00a0Autobiography in Five Short Chapter<\/span>s
By Portia Nelson, sent to me by a good friend.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chapter One<\/span>
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost…I am helpless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.<\/p>\n

Chapter Two<\/span>
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend that I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in this same place.
But, it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.<\/p>\n

Chapter Three<\/span>
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep whole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in…it’s a habit…but,
My eyes are open
I know where I am
It is my fault.
I get out immediately,<\/p>\n

Chapter Four<\/span>
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.<\/p>\n

Chapter Five<\/span>
I walk down another street.<\/span> <\/p>\n


<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There Is a Hole in My Sidewalk:\u00a0Autobiography in Five Short ChaptersBy Portia Nelson, sent to me by a good friend. Chapter OneI walk down the street.There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.I fall in.I am lost…I am helpless.It isn’t my fault.It takes forever to find a way out. Chapter TwoI walk down the street.There…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-growth"],"yoast_head":"\nA Parable of Change, Growth and Turning Things Around - Flirting with Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/06\/a-parable-of-change-by-portia-nelson.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Parable of Change, Growth and Turning Things Around - Flirting with Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There Is a Hole in My Sidewalk:\u00a0Autobiography in Five Short ChaptersBy Portia Nelson, sent to me by a good friend. 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