My life of late has been filled with metaphors, which I suppose is fitting, since I play at being a writer when I'm not writing for a living. I play with my words like some people play with puppies - giggles and guffaws included.
So here is big one that has come into focus over the last few weeks, since I've returned from that bit of paradise I like to call South Haven. I give you, today's glimpse into the Mind of the Maggie:
The Willow and the Dead Oak
I believe we are called to be flexible, to bend with the breezes and bow to the freight trains. Flexibility is the very nature of strength. It allows us to be who we are, to live authentically while at peace with those around us. To be flexible, like a willow, is to curve and bend around that which doesn't perfectly mirror us.
So why, then, would one - oh, let's say, me, for example - choose the opposite? Why would I willingly live in a brittle, unmoving world, where that which challenges me snaps me in half rather than moving me in a gentle dance? I did not bend; I broke. I spent ten years broken, trying desperately to pick up the pieces and urge them back together into something resembling Maggie. But that can't work until major changes are made.
The best news is, a Dead Oak can transform once again into a Willow. She can regain her strength. She can challenge herself, she can be challenged, and she can challenge others. The transformation is difficult, but ultimately worth it, and if we're truly dedicated to it, it's never really done. We just keep bending, keep stretching, keep flowing toward something greater than ourselves.
Sure as hell beats the alternative, don't you think?
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