Losing It All

"I am scared of losing it all," said the Stag.
"Do whatever it takes to keep it," said the Rat.
"What do you truly own?" said the Wren.

The River owned nothing.

Losing It All

You've built something. Maybe it's the business.

Maybe it's your reputation. Maybe it's the image of yourself as someone who has it together. And now you're terrified of losing it.

So you do whatever it takes to keep it. Work harder. Control more. Defend every decision.

Hold tighter.

The Rat tells you this is survival—do whatever it takes to keep what you have.

But here's the question that changes everything:
What do you actually own?

Not what have you built or achieved or accumulated. But what can actually be taken from you?

Your identity isn't owned, it's performed. Your status isn't possessed; it's given by others.

Your security isn't guaranteed; it's conditional.

The thing you're defending so desperately. You never truly owned it in the first place.

And the exhaustion you feel?

That's the cost of trying to hold onto something that can't be held.

The River owns nothing.

That's why it can't lose anything.

Stories by the Vltava River