LEANING AND SWAYING

     I’ve been sitting under our new suspended patio umbrella for a few minutes this afternoon, minding how it bends as breezes blow by, and I’m thinking I should do more of my own bending as the occurrences of life come past me. The umbrella tilts to take advantage of the flow of the wind, and I should do some tilting, now and then, to make good use of the situations that puff or bluster past me. Instead of resisting certain circumstances, I could merely lean a little this way or that, like the umbrella – sort of rising and falling with the circumstances rather than opposing them. Sitting under the umbrella in a breeze is like sitting under a swaying dancer, a stylish artiste who plays with the winds instead of wrestling with them, and I could learn a lucky lesson from it: leaning and swaying sometimes works better than stiffening and struggling.