We wrestle with life,
Push it away,
Yank on it
Complain about it
And want more of it as it gets closer to the end.
We struggle against it:
Its complicated details
Its complex paths
Convoluted and difficult
Like a maze
We must find our way through
Like a riddle that answers us with another question.
I struggled with it.
Wept because of it.
Got sick from it.
Forgot I controlled most of it with positive thought and feeling.
Forgot, too, that I would love it
And sometimes hate it.
That it would baffle me,
but I’d always come back for more.
We often run and hide from this life
Scream and chase it on slippery embankments
Too steep to climb.
Finally we surrender to it,
realizing we influence it
by our tempo, our speed
our reluctance or embracing.
We accept it now.
Allowing life to no longer be the enemy it once was.
Now it is a quiet friend,
A loud obnoxious friend, a soothing friend
A high pitched opera
A low baritone crescendoing into something
we now crave, we now pine for,
we now give thanks for.
Its mysterious twists and turns
Its hot, cold, dry, swampy, warm,
complicated disposition that at once baffles us.
But we come back for more.
We beg for it.
Life becomes this gift
we never have to fight with again.
Having accepted its volatile changes,
Its high and low tones.
We now embrace life
Like an old friend
Like a lover we can never get enough of.
I no longer struggle you to the ground
and swim against your current.
I accept life and life accepts me.
I think I understand
that it doesn’t want to be understood.
It just wants to be loved.