The Gift of Challenges (an excerpt from an upcoming book on peace)

Life gives us challenges that may seem beyond our abilities to adapt, and for most of us increasingly so as we age until we ultimately lose everything we thought we had or were.
Can any gift come of that? Absolutely! Perhaps the greatest learning we get to receive while being in form – the temporary state of living with a mind inside a body – is the knowing of what is most important: who and what we are is beyond thought, beyond any role we play – beyond form.
The play of opposites is a dance we get to dance while in form. It is the extreme opposites that make life’s dance so beautiful: the highs and lows, expanding and contracting, beginnings and endings, holding on and letting go, etc. It is by flowing with, not resisting, the extremes that brings us to the middle, to peace, to our essential nature.
Dance the dance as beautifully as you can as long as you can. Dance it with a smile on your face from the love in your heart. And when your legs can no longer dance, dance inside to the rhythm of the music in your heart. And when the song in your heart has played its last beat, your dance will know no bounds.
And until that day when you become one with the song bird’s song, be an inspiration for the birds to sing, the children to laugh, the lovers to love, and the world to turn like a ballerina on the tips of her toes. With your every breath, be the beacon of light and hope that you always wished would shine on you for all the eyes who have not seen what you have seen. And you will know peace. (Chad A. Wright, June 8, 2014; updated June 11, 2018)