Many thanks to my Google+ friend Chad, who introduced me to the awesome wisdom of Mark Nepo.
"Fighting The Instrument" is one of his poems I discovered while checking out his website. It is a reminder that we are strengthened by our struggles, while we fight "the lesson" all the way and curse the storm as it happens.
What is it about our human nature that finds it difficult to "embrace the change," even when we have been awakened to the fact that it usually leads to something better? Why do we not love the struggle and open ourselves to the unknown changes to come?
The conclusion I have reached in my journey through a lifetime of struggles is that change is scary since it is unknown. We hold on to "what is" because we know what "it" is and have become comfortable with it, no matter how bad it is.
The unknown is scarier than the storm itself until we can finally realize that the "calm" always comes after the storm. The realization itself can be scary, or so it seems to me.
It is a lesson I have yet to learn through all the storms I've experienced . . .
Fighting The Instrument
by Mark Nepo
Often the instruments of change
are not kind or just
and the hardest openness
of all might be
to embrace the change
while not wasting your heart
fighting the instrument.
are not kind or just
and the hardest openness
of all might be
to embrace the change
while not wasting your heart
fighting the instrument.
The storm is not as important
as the path it opens.
The mistreatment in one life
never as crucial as the clearing
it makes in your heart.
as the path it opens.
The mistreatment in one life
never as crucial as the clearing
it makes in your heart.
This is very difficult to accept.
The hammer or cruel one
is always short-lived
compared to the jewel
in the center of the stone.
The hammer or cruel one
is always short-lived
compared to the jewel
in the center of the stone.
