Life is not a struggle

"Life is not a struggle. It is a wiggle." Peter McWilliams

I wonder if Peter M. was referring to how life really is or how we choose to respond to it's offerings. What am I talking about? Life doesn't approach us to make deals or negotiate terms. There are no contracts or offers! Peter had to be telling us that we can push and pull in an attempt to make things happen our way (struggle)or we can gently twist, turn and tunnel our way through (wiggle).

Struggles are exhausting and fruitless. Wiggles exhilarate, they are fun!

September and October have become my season for conducting a soul check. Today I engaged hindsight into my state of mind during the fall of 2001. Lucky I didn't know what a blog was then! I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve so it would have been graphically published tales of pain. I struggled. My journal entries are full of banging my head against walls, every imaginary one I could put up. Push, pull, stand back and run at it again!

It took a year to find a gentler way (wiggle, wiggle). I turned to friends and family. I allowed all feelings to emerge. I listened to the wisdom that fluttered like feathers when I stopped huffing and puffing.

The wisdom I emerged with is wrapped in a few quotes:
"To thine own self be true" (that is harder than the simple quote implies Shakespeare)"
"Let your life speak" a Quaker adage (very convicting but it made me lift my head)
"We hold the key to our own freedom. The key is honoring and taking care of ourselves" Melody Beattie's book "Language of Letting Go" was invaluable to me.