Meet Yourself With Joy

It is the difficult things that we meet that enable us to bring into action the greater power within us; difficulties, therefore, are the most valued of opportunities, and if taken advantage of as such, will always be met with joy.

-Christian D. Larson

The title of this short piece was called 


The Joy of Discomfort.

Oh goodie.

Lately, I've been harboring a generalized discomfort about my life. It's been hanging around for a while now, but like any good fighter, I keep fueling it with my relentless resistance to the dissolving of old forms, out-dated beliefs, old ways of seeing and being.


More sandbags! The walls are leaking!!


The things I can do when I put my mind to something. 


Damn I'm good. 


Yes, very good, Betsy. Excellent resistance. 
You are mah-velous at this!


Why do I keep doing this?


fear.

What's the discomfort?

Where in my body is it living?

What is it trying to tell me?
What do I want?

Pay attention.

I remember my brother, Rob, as a teenager, constantly snapping his arms, locking and unlocking his elbows. 

"It's driving me crazy," he'd say, snap snap snap.

"You're having growing pains, Rob," Mom would say.

And he was.

Me too. You? 

Growing pains are not limited to childhood or adolescence. They arise when needed, when we are being called to change, risk, grow. 

Like a lobster, my shell feels too tight. 

I've been watching myself clinging to the perceived safety of the riverbank, branch, cliff, ledge


don't let go don't let...


knowing the ease I long for will come
when I let go and float. 

Time for the mind to stand down 


because... 

Dear faithful heart is lovingly, yet firmly, 
prying my fingers off the things I cling to...

Cut yourself loose, she whispers.


Meet yourself with joy.