For the past few years have been living in a state of struggle. A few years ago when I began to experience these difficulties I assumed these specific challenging events of my life would pass and I could move on with my life. Surely the struggle would end when my house sold or when I finally hired an attorney to help with my divorce. Surely things will calm down when I find a new home for the kids and I or when my love life settles in to a comfortable ease. Maybe life will be better once my daughter changes schools and I teach less classes. I certainly didn’t think years later the struggles would still be lingering about clouding my vision like a thick fog.
Not too long ago I had a lunch date with a few girlfriends with whom I didn’t get to see very often. We spent almost the entire lunch discussing the changes I was experiencing and how I felt stuck within these struggles. I was catching them up on the current drama in my life that had occurred over the past couple months ( I like to joke that I was their living breathing version of a soap opera). We talked about my beautifully messy divorce and my continuing struggles with my ex husband. We talked about my two children and their current hardships having two very different homes and a new baby brother. We talked about my on again/off again boyfriend(with whom I was deeply and madly in love) and our inability to move forward. We talked about the future of FORM {yoga} and the soul searching I faced deciding whether or not to look for a new space and keep it open. We talked about a sudden (and pretty scary) attraction that a secret admirer had taken sending me strange notes and flowers. We talked about my desperate search for a new home for my kids and I.
Basically we talked about life.
I remember sitting with my girlfriends and feeling the slight shifting of perspective that allowed the vision to see once again the absolute truth and beauty of these situations. These struggles ARE life. Life doesn’t halt like a frightened deer in headlights and wait for your struggles to lift before moving onward.
Life moves on.
Life insists that we make choices. Life begs us to dive in and go deep. Life demands that no matter how uncomfortable the situation we simply keep moving forward.
Life is what happens within the struggle, the fear, the discomfort, the uncertainty, the pain, the sadness, the frustration, the heartache. And maybe as our eyes adjust to this new vision of struggle we have more opportunity to experience life in all it’s beautiful mess.
“It’s not about getting over things, it’s about making room for them. It’s about painting the picture with contrast.”
– Brianna Wiest