Befriend Barriers

This springtime forest is lush and lovely, and the path weaving through it calls us deeper in… but the way is blocked. 

Jo here, writing in transit on a hot day in the beginning of May—thinking about the experience of being blocked. I know this feeling well. For me, it can range from a subtle off-ness that follows me around all day to a river of grief between me and what I most yearn for but cannot reach. 

I felt blocked while trying to write this piece until Corina offered me some sage advice: bring the experience of being blocked into the writing. In essence they were saying, don’t try to go around it, don’t try to dissolve it or change it, but rather work with it. Bring the obstacle with you… Consider, the thing that feels like it’s in your way is also, quite literally, on your path. 

The glossy bear in this image is not a thing, they are a living creature with a welcoming sparkle in their eyes. They may symbolize an obstacle, but they also look really down to snuggle and get to know you better. 

May we trust this month that whatever gets in our way is offering us a potentially important opportunity to pause. And, in that pause, we can shift out of modernity’s obsession with doing. Perhaps we will wander instead into the wild realms of relating.