People lift weights to gain strength.  Joggers run to be agile.  Humans bump to tone their skin and learn to bounce.

Conflict is essential as a human; it is inevitable since we’re made of clay and ash.  We just naturally have that solid obtuse spiritual casing that is meant to knock into everything in our path.  We can’t even walk the path without stepping on it. 

But what a conscious practice it seems to demand–allowing germs and weather, feelings and missed appointments, change and tragedy, opportunities and spontaneous combustion move us along the Way.

And it’s different for all of us.  My wound is not in the same place as you.  So when I’m slapped with life, sometimes it aches and sometimes I laugh and bump back.  No one can dictate how I walk and trudge, but I certainly listen to those that have been to the gym before me.  In fact, I don’t like the gym, but cherish those walks under the trees.

Here, looking up to the sky covered with the treetops, I recognize my height and depth and endless connection to All That Is.  No wrestling needed in the state of grace.