"LIfe is...."

July 1, 2010

 

“Life Is ….”

 

It is hard to accept that July is already here and the summer is slipping away from me.  Life seems to be like that.  It just seems to squirm and turn and wiggle and jiggle and we struggle at best to keep it where we think we want it.  About the time we think we have it secure something happens and we lose our grip on it again and then we find ourselves wrestling with it and clutching at it, trying to hold it down.  I remember being at a rodeo once and they had an event where several kids were put in the arena and a greased pig was let loose.  The object was to catch the pig for a cash prize.  It was so funny to watch those kids and their efforts at catching and controlling that pig.  One kid finally did it but it took a while and he didn’t hold it for long!

 

It is difficult at best to allow life to be what it is in any given moment.  We work hard, we expend great amounts of time and energy to box it up, contain it, control it and make it fit our ideas of what it should be and how it should express itself.  It doesn’t take long before it just gets away from us again and we find ourselves frustrated, angry, and hurt because once again it has surprised us and delivered to us an experience we just didn’t see coming.  I am not sure God ever intended that we control life.  The Genesis story has God and the first human beings just enjoying the life of creation, carefree, and in harmony with it.  Maybe we should spend less time trying to manipulate life and more time just sensing what it is and the expression it is seeking to share in any given moment.  It is not easy to grant life such freedom.  Any yet, I am not sure we grant life anything.  It seems to me life is free no matter how hard we try to convince ourselves it is not.  I like the wildness of life.  I am beginning to appreciate the reality that it cannot be contained and that it defies our pitiful attempts at controlling it.  Life is here, right now and we have the freedom and opportunity to go with where it seeking expression next.  What an adventure!  There is nothing quite like living, is there?

 

I will see you on the road,

 

Travis