“Your difficulties are not obstacles on the path, they are the path.” ~ Ezra Bayda
If Ezra is right, then I am forging a new way of doing things. I am going to embrace my difficulties. Okay, embrace may be too strong a word here… how about not reject them? I think that I should quit being Cleopatra’s neighbour and move away from denial, which is a nice place to visit, but I don’t want to live out my life there.
Sundown in the Nile (Photo credit: Carlos Bustamante – Cartagena)
Obstacles make you take life a little less for granted; they make you more flexible, more pliable; and…okay, let’s face it—life would be more lovely without them—but would we realize the loveliness? I would like to think that I have now faced enough obstacles to last me a lifetime, but if they are, as Ezra says, “the path”, then I guess I will just have to “embrace” them… just not too tightly.
Can you look at difficulties as bliss?
On the Homefront 
Yes I can! ♥ Great post!
thank you – 🙂 – have a great weekend!
You too! ♥
I’m slowly learning this, but I’m a slow, stubborn learner.
me too, me too
The contrast makes me appreciate the positives even more. Besides, I’m reminded of the saying: “What we resist persists.” Thanks for the reminder, LouAnn.
I like that and I can vouch for it being so true
I don’t know about obstacles being blissful, but one wise person said, ” obstacles are the stepping stones to success.” I think there is some truth in that.
okay, I am now ready for success!
Not today. But hopefully tomorrow I’ll be better able to deal with today’s obstacles. I hope everything is ok with you.
I hope you are feeling better — I have days I can deal with obstacles and days when denial is the best I can do
I like your insight re: obstacles which make one appreciate the good things in life. The probelm with modern people of today is that most of us have no idea about hardship, poor health, poverty, abuse of women and childrem. disaster, loss of a child or a spouse, and well the list goes on. Until one experiences some sort of hardship or difficulty they have no idea of what bliss means. This is a round-about way of trying to get my opinion across. When the tide turns for an improvement in one’s life then a person has an idea of what bliss is about.
I can not get the wording right but I need to move on. I could spend an hour on obstacles and bliss. 🙂
it is true that you realize the good things in life once you have experienced the bad–I have become a better person because of some of my experiences–more compassionate–and have now walked in “shoes” I never wanted to walk in–but you do come out stronger–and things you once took for granted are now welcome and appreciated
Yes.
glad you are back
I really struggled today – getting up late after a late night, plodding my way through two job applications with the foreboding sense that my credentials wouldn’t be what they were looking for, getting error messages as I tried to pay my bills.
But I plunged ahead, and I’m glad I did. I’m now relaxing reading my favorite blogs with a sense of accomplishment.
Have a great night.
sometimes crummy things make you appreciate the other things that you would have taken for granted — at least I am that way
I thought life revolved around obstacles to keep us on our feet😃
I think you got it right!
I got in a car accident today, Lou Ann. It was my fault, I’ve been distracted. I just accepted an offer on my house. It sounds like good news but now I have no idea where I’ll move. I feel like I’m falling off a cliff. My path has been difficult for the past couple of years. I keep looking for the sign ahead that will direct me to a new path- just like driving down the highway. I feel like I took some wrong turns and I’m on a bad road with lots of pot holes and terrible traffic. I want to get off. The only thing that keeps me going is the hope that I will get to turn off soon. Embrace or accept…? I don’t know if I can.
are you okay? sometimes the challenges pile up and that is when it is really difficult–I too, have taken a few paths not taken that turned out to be rough–but sometimes we have to go down those paths–don’t ask me why
You are such a lovely person and I know things are going to turn around–you deserve a respite and I wish I could provide it (((hugs)))
Lou, what an inspiring post (I needed to hear this). I do think difficulties teach us something. I don’t normally know what that something is until after the dust has settled. But there’s always, when I look back, I think — that’s why THAT happened. My thoughts are with you as I know you’re been going through some challenges, but you are a lovely, strong and positive person. Nothing can take that away. Much love to you and yours. xo
I know, when we are going through the challenges it is hard to see what good they are, but some I have gone through have made me more compassionate about what other people have to contend with
Much love to you and yours too!
Oh and so with you on this one, LouAnn. It can so difficult to embrace our obstacles, especially when we DON’T WANT THEM! Would love to say “challenges, begone!” but guess Life doesn’t work that way. Many blessings, my friend.
be nice if that would work–put it in a spray bottle and spray it around
I always think that obstacles are much smaller once we’ve slept on them. I think we somehow squish them into submission.
“Press on. Obstacles are seldom the same size tomorrow as they are today.”
Robert H.Schuller
I need to sleep on some and squish others with a big rock!
So many great comments here…a reminder that we all face obstacles and challenges, if not today, then surely tomorrow! I don’t always see the purpose for the challenges in my life..sometimes I do, but other situations remain murky! And some remain unresolved…but maybe the lesson of those is just acceptance. I also think as we get older it is easier to have patience with obstacles as we have the experience of knowing that things usually work out in the end…something young people can’t know until they live it. Doesn’t make it easy though… ~ Sheila
the saying–this too willl pass is comforting–but sometimes it does not pass quickly enough, or as you say remains murky and unresolved– most things do pass–those that don’t teach us the lesson of patience (speaking for myself–it is a lesson hard learned)
Yes, with writing. And with people I love. They can be difficult, but they are also the source of bliss.
so true
The answer is yes, but it was not too long ago that I finally got it. Great post
I am not sure I have got it yet: these posts a lot of times are self-talk