I’ve always been in awe of hurdlers, the way they fly over the barriers placed in their way. They soar, legs stretched to the max, a kind of low flying while hardly losing any momentum. They don’t even stumble when they hit the ground and continue.
Ah, to be so adept at managing obstacles! I see though that being stopped by an obstacle for a short time can be good. Also taking the time to walk around something too big to cross over directly is also good. Not to speak of actually sitting down somewhere in the middle of one of life’s obstacle courses and having a picnic, and so getting friendly with the lay of the land. That is very good.
Here are the words I’ve heard from many spiritually minded people say, It’s all good. Arriving at such a positive attitude might require us to have come through many hurdles at which we failed miserably. It’s not the obstacle itself but our resilience in facing it that matters. Time for a picnic! That’s always good.
Phrases posted on Facebook, June 2015
It’s June and time for another subject: ” The Gift of Obstacles”. Obstacles, what a dreadful topic to have at the height of summer! But it is something I am drawn to explore . . . at least to tip toe into.
Obstacles—we have all had them and will have them and may have them now. A frequent feeling for many is that they are a failure for having an obstacle. “It’s all my fault,” they might think. It’s hard to see that taking on being the sole cause of difficulty is a kind of inverted pride. Why not be properly proud and say, “I am up for this challenge”?
Another frequent way that obstacles are emotionally handled is by blaming. “It’s all their fault!” How hard it is to see that we are part of a vast whole, and that just by being alive we contribute to obstacles happening to ourselves and to others.
It is how an obstacle is viewed that makes it either a good (though perhaps very painful) challenge or an abomination. Guess we have to keep cleaning our obstacle glasses all the time.
Every obstacle that comes our way is a chance to grow in awareness. Could we learn to say “Hello Obstacle, let me dance with you until I learn some new steps”?
How many countless obstacles have been the catalysts for creativity? Obstacles seem to be necessary, as in “necessity is the mother of invention”. How many times did an obstacle present itself to Edison before the light bulb burned brightly?
If an obstacle is one that is not going to go away as in a chronic illness, then we must accept that so called “solutions” are not to be sought after as much as loving kindness and patience. That is true in all our struggles anyway.
An important determination is to really examine an obstacle and come to know whether it belongs to us or to someone else. If it belongs to us it is one of the teachers that will bring us closer to our wholeness. If it belongs to someone else, and we insist on engaging with it, we’ll just create more obstacles.
In a sometimes terrible and sometimes wonderful way obstacles help us be in the present, in the unfolding moment where all of life is, where the possibility of being truly human is. Why do we want to avoid that so much of the time?
To respect our obstacles is a sign of a growing maturity.
Sometimes when an obstacle is with us 24/7 acceptance is the only place left for us to inhabit. It can then be that acceptance is a form of rest.
Obstacles can also teach us about timing. If we are stopped by something could we ask what has to catch up with us so that we can be able to go on? I wonder if it is the soul having to catch up with the body.
When in athletic training or other kinds of training we set up obstacles to pit ourselves against, those obstacles are “on the way” to more capacity and excellence. It is the negative, unconscious obstacles we set up that are “in the way”. Unearthing and unraveling those is a gift we can give to our future.
A difficult situation in life may not be possible to change, but the way we perceive it can. The situation can be seen as an obdurate (what a juicy adjective is that!) obstacle or a challenge we are meant to creatively face.
When we are somehow able to receive everything in our lives as gift there are no more obstacles
