A Life Worth Living

Embrace the struggle.

Writing has become more difficult nowadays. Not because I don’t have anything to say but when I sit down to put my thoughts to paper or computer they take flight. So I sit and stare. Try as I might, the snippets that I hang onto once on paper don’t seem good enough. So, like any resilient person I do the opposite, I give up …hang up my lyre as it were. I retreat back into my mind and fantasize about the day writing will be easy again. The day words will be flowing like a river onto my page. Then I fill my day with other distractions because it’s just too hard. The writing process is one of my hard things this summer.

This has been me most of the summer. I thought to myself; what would happen if I just sat and put anything down? Maybe a word or two? What if I accept that most days there will be struggle? And maybe just occasionally there will be an outpouring of words? What if I embrace the struggle? What a joy it will be to finally see a page full of words. What patience and perseverance I will have developed. Yes, I will have grown as a person and a writer. Maybe struggle is not such a bad thing if I look at it from that perspective.

Here is an encouragement to you friend. If you are struggling to achieve your goals,struggling to keep up your spiritual disciplines, struggling to be creative and consistent, whatever your struggle is don’t give up! Show up, embrace the struggle and do as much or as little as you can. Keep showing up and one day when you look back you, you will have moved closer to your goals. Even if you will not be at the end, you will not be at the beginning either. One thing is for sure; you will grow and develop in ways you had not anticipated. And oh, what joy you will experience when you finally get to the end!