Webster’s dictionary defines an obstacle as “an obstruction that prevents a forward movement or course of action.”  Do you ever feel restricted by an obstacle – something that keeps you from moving forward with your life, something that stands between you and what you define as a complete and whole life?  I have instead tried to see my obstacles as opportunities for growth or forward movement in my life.  Thomas Carlyle wrote: “The block of granite, which is anobstacle in the pathway of the weak, becomes a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.”  In other words, obstacles are all a matter of perspective.  Do you see the challenges in your life as obstacles or opportunities?  We will always have challenges, but how we view them is our choice. 

In Zen there is an old saying: the obstacle is the path.  Know that a whole and happy life if not free from obstacles.  Quite the contrary, a whole and happy life is riddled with obstacles – they simply become the very stepping-stones that help lift us to a new perspective.  It is not what happens to us in this life that shapes us; it is how we choose to respond to what happens to us.

Today in your writing picture your path and tell about the “opportunities” that have been presented to you this week.