The Way it Is

The Way It Is (by Lyn Ungar)

One morning you might wake up
to realize that the knot in your stomach
had loosened itself and slipped away,
and that the pit of unfulfilled longing in your heart
had gradually, and without your really noticing,
been filled in—patched like a pothole, not quite
the same as it was, but good enough.

And in that moment it might occur to you
that your life, though not the way
you planned it, and maybe not even entirely
the way you wanted it, is nonetheless—
persistently, abundantly, miraculously—
exactly the way it is.

It’s about present moment awareness again isn’t it? About loving the life we have right here and right now and right underneath our noses, but often we fail to see. It’s about time and a healing that happens that is sometimes so unnoticeable that we almost don’t recognize the change that’s been a change for the good, a healing in the heart, a soothing of the soul, a calming of the mind. It’s about perspective too. Joseph Campbell said:

“You must give up the life you planned in order to have the life that is waiting for you.”

It’s echoed throughout Scripture, as in Jeremiah 29:11 about the good plans and intentions God has for us that “prosper” us and give us hope and a future. It also reminds me of Proverbs 3:5-6 with the invitation to trust in God and goodness and not lean on our own understanding.  The second stanza says this so beautifully – that though this may not be the way you planned it, imagined it, expected it, hoped it would be there is at the core a hidden beauty and goodness in it nonetheless that we can find with the proper perspective.  Nonetheless, Nevertheless it is a persistent, abundant miraculous thing just to be alive, to take this breath, to be thankful and to know it’s goodness.  The power and wisdom of acceptance is a beautiful, wonderful thing.  A good reminder for me today – to live all the days of my life.

Thank you God for the way it is, has been and will be.