Obstacles and Opportunities

"It never ends!” sighed a dear, elderly friend in exasperation.

No sooner had she replaced the bathroom faucet when her Netflix mysteriously stopped working.

“Can’t life ever be simple?” she pleaded with me.

“I don’t think so,” I responded.

In facing life’s ups and downs, there’s a tendency to wonder when it will all end, when things will finally feel resolved.

For me, and everyone I know, that day never seems to come. Life just doesn’t work that way.

What if, instead of wishing for things to be easy, we cultivated the fortitude to meet life on its own terms?

What if we stopped wishing obstacles would disappear and instead saw them as opportunities for growth, chances to practice becoming the kind of people we aspire to be?

Perhaps then you could learn to ride the waves of daily life with greater equanimity, instead of waiting for the ever-elusive smooth sailing.

It’s a powerful way to see the role of yoga in your life.

Our practices can equip us with tools and perspective to navigate the tumult of daily life, and the unknown road ahead, with strength and resolve.