“Personification”

“Following your own deepest wisdom may be the best way of all to live.”

To befriend life fully, you need to start by accepting yourself. Consider for a minute any part of your life that causes you some stress. What can you do to lessen that stress? One way I try to do this and a way I try to coach the students I serve is to treat the stress as a friend.

I know that on the surface that may sound a bit nutty. But sometimes when we look at those things that bother us as being in our lives to teach us something, aspects of the stress start to melt away. To do this, I think it’s very useful to personify things. You see me doing this pretty much every week with the reading assignment. I regularly ask you to consider the book or a part of the book as a friend that has something important to tell you.

Try this in other parts of your life, both those that seem challenging and those that seem easy. A good place to start practicing this is with the weather. See each day’s weather as a friend who has come to have a cup of tea with you. Be a gracious host. Sit your friend down. Serve her (and yourself) your favorite tea. Offer a piece of coffee cake. Be open to what she has to tell you.

So I suggest you reflect on your week befriending life by personifying it. What kind of friend did you find? What kind of friend did you let in? What kind of friend have you been? These questions can be either simple or hard to answer. Make them simple, allow answers to surface. Then accept the answers as news being delivered by a good and trusted friend, be she bringing “good news” or “bad news.”

This is one way to befriend life.

Link to Book: “My Grandfather’s Blessings”