The Israelites, recently released from captivity, pour out
of Egypt. Pharaoh chases after,
desperate to capture them. The Torah
describes his determination this way: “YHVH
strengthened Pharaoh’s heart” (Exodus 14:8).
That’s how it feels when we get determined or stubborn: hardened, tightened, rigid. Fight or flight kicks in. We feel powerful. Our hands make fists, our jaws lock, and our
field of vision narrows.
This approach isn’t successful for Pharaoh (“God locked the
wheels of their chariots so that they moved forward with difficulty” [14:25]),
and it’s rarely successful for us. When
we harden, we fail to see possibilities and opportunities. We overlook allies. We make poor decisions.
Instead, take a lesson from the ocean. It is always changing, always rolling. Waves pass through it and it bends around any
corner. An ocean is fluid enough to divide,
even though that’s contrary to its own nature.
When confronted, water relaxes its grip and gets out of the way.
When a situation gets intense, try to be conscious and move
yourself in the opposite direction: relax your grip, close your eyes, breath in
and out. Feel how you are feeling in
that moment. Release the requirement
that your solution is the only one.
Shift yourself from being an obstacle to moving with the flow.
Who knows? Something
miraculous might happen.
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