Challenges

Puddle by M.C. Escher

There were many challenges in my past week. Lots of great and wonderful insights along with self-doubt, fears and stresses. I felt a bit like Escher's image ~~ beauty reflected in a puddle filled with tire tracks and footprints.

I know that I carry deep within myself the essence of beauty and wonder. Some days it shines through with shocking electric clarity. Other days it peeks out from behind a corner or sits quietly in a reflecting pool. Much of the time it is both visible and quiet in ways that don't over- or underwhelm.

Then there are the tracks that run themselves through the depths of me. I know I have the power to choose how I react to what others say or don't say, do or don't do. Yet on some days the tracks sink deeper into the muck of my being and leave their impressions in a different way.

All of this is gift. All of this teaches me about my own deep inner choices, about what I choose to take on, what I choose to leave behind, what lessons I learn. Who and what I am has been shaped by my choices. Those choices include the people with whom I share time and space, the places I work, play and live as well as how I choose to respond to everything in my surroundings. For all this, I am grateful.

What causes the tracks across your reflected beauty? How do you choose to respond? Are all your responses the same? or are some deeper or truer than others?