Muscle for Life

Confucius once said that life is simple but we insist on making it complicated. Come again? What’s simple about the myriad demands, dilemmas, and dealings of everyday life that push and pull on our body, mind, and soul? What’s simple about love, success, health, wisdom, satisfaction, spirituality, and the rest of the brass rings we all strive for? Many times, life appears overwhelmingly complex, like trying to build an airplane while in flight, or even bitterly abusive, like licking a car battery. And understandably so. In this age of liberty and abundance where we’re free to be and do whatever we want, we must choose tasks and responsibilities from a dizzying number of possibilities. And then, as efforts evaporate, wins elude, and penalties encroach, we realize we’re not spinning an elegant web but cobbling up a clumsy knot. And so we sputter, skid, and spiral as our self-confidence leaks from a thousand wounds. Many people try to escape this existential strike zone by heaving more lumpy stones into the rock