Once upon a time there was a black sheep.

It lived in a village full of sheep and carried a bucket with it. A bucket of filth. Everything it had not allowed itself to be, everything the village had not wanted to see, lay in it. It could not put the bucket down.

For a time the sheep thought about tipping the bucket out. Over the others. They should turn black too, it thought, then it would no longer be alone. It imagined nights in which it moved through the village spraying colour. The thought warmed and poisoned at the same time.

But one morning the sheep set out. It had heard of the Lake of Understanding, high up, beyond the hill. It did not leave the bucket behind. It carried it the whole way.

At the shore it sat down. The water was still and reflected the sheep as it was.

Hour after hour it sat there. And slowly it understood what was in the bucket. Ego, shame, and the secrets it had kept to itself because it believed they made it smaller. One part after another it threw overboard, into the lake. The lake took everything. It did not become fuller.

When the sheep stood up, the bucket was empty. But it did not leave it behind. It scooped water from the lake and walked back to the village.

There it met the first sheep. It told it what it had learned, and handed over the bucket. “Drink,” it said. The sheep drank. And as it drank, something fell away from it. Its wool, which had always been white, suddenly showed shades. Light brown. A little red at the ears. The sheep was startled, then laughed.

So the black sheep went from door to door. Some drank, some did not. Whoever drank came back to their real colour. One became colourful, one grey. One stayed white and shone more brightly than before. One became black and stood beside the first, without shame.

The village looked different now. More colourful. More honest. When the wind came, the sheep stood closer together, because they knew who the other was.

And the bucket? It was passed on. Always full, always with water from the lake.

By René Jochum and Claude (Anthropic). License: CC-BY-4.0.