The Choice to Grow

As a parent, I’ve tried to share the lessons I feel have the most impact for good. At the top of that list is to lean in to change and proactively choose opportunities for growth. By my observation and experience, life will teach what’s needed regardless, and ignoring the lessons only makes them louder and harsher.

One of my favorite poets is Hafiz. He writes beautifully about the relationship to Life and the Divine with such humor. A poem that illustrates this particular lesson is called, A Divine Invitation.

You have been invited to meet The Friend.
No one can resist a Divine Invitation.
That narrows down all our choices to just two:

We can come to God dressed for dancing, or
Be carried on a stretcher to God’s Ward.

After several visits to the figurative “ward”, I now show up ready to dance. :) Resistance is futile and going with the flow is so much easier, more peaceful and a lot more fun.

Whenever my child recognizes an area needing improvement, I ask if it’s better to resist or ignore it, put it off and learn the hard way, or embrace it proactively and make small changes and adjustments and thereby experience more fluidity and control. It can be hard sometimes in the moment to take the high road or the long view and challenge ourselves, but the payoffs are great. And sooner or later, those lessons will need to be addressed. Embracing the choice to grow and dancing through life with a light touch is so much more pleasurable than holding on, fighting or blocking, which in the end is only a futile delay tactic.