the problem with gravity

i used to really resent gravity - always "workin against me" as john mayer would say. we are helpless against it. with all our earthly genius we cannot overcome it. what goes up must come down. and you can't really get around it. i would daydream about being able to fly and float around weightlessly as if swimming through some intangible substance. i would dream about becoming an astronaut to live in outer space where gravity has no hold on me. gravity just seems to resist me all the time.

then there is this moment when you realize - that thing you have perceived as an enemy in your life has been an ally all along.

without gravity (nothing to resist us), we grow weak. with nothing to pull us down, we never learn how to pull ourselves up - we would never know the feel of standing on our own two feet. the rivers would forget where to flow. the snow would have nowhere to fall. 

yes, gravity resists us, but we also resist gravity. if gravity didn't resist us, our muscles and bones would waste away and we would become weak and decrepit. and similarly, if we didn't resist gravity, our bones and muscles would waste away and we would become weak and decrepit. and it is through this mutual resistance that we grow stronger - stronger in mind, stronger in body, stronger in spirit. we learn patience, perseverance, resilience. we learn resolve, we learn victory and we learn overcoming.

so the next time i fall and it feels like gravity wants to hold me down, i'll remember that gravity isn't the enemy. i will remember the powerful truth of mutual resistance.

we cannot overcome gravity, but we don't have to let it overcome us.

"social" media

we stood around quietly engaged in our phones, sort of vaguely aware of each other, looking forward to tomorrow when we could look back on tonight and recall how awesome and epic it was.