Simple Transcendence

Sooner or later, you dis­cover the “walls” of life. They are the immov­able obsta­cles such as aging, finan­cial lim­i­ta­tions, and inborn per­son­al­ity traits that are some­how just there from birth to death. At cer­tain times of life, those walls can feel like they are clos­ing in on you. We fight the walls with will power for as long as we can hold out. One day we all dis­cover that deter­mi­na­tion, will, and effort are exhaustible. We have to choose another approach.
Per­son­ally, I pre­fer humor, good sto­ries, new adven­tures, and other sim­i­lar forms of sim­ple spir­i­tual tran­scen­dence. That which can­not be changed can even­tu­ally be accepted. Some­times we get there kick­ing and scream­ing. At other times we arrive in style. Accep­tance does not always come easy. The trick to life is real­iz­ing that the final word is, “Into your hands I give my spirit…” (the dying words of Jesus). Accep­tance, faith, and hope are all in the pack­age of tran­scen­dence.
The walls are all there for a rea­son. You can­not nego­ti­ate with them, but you can tran­scend them. That is the role of spir­i­tu­al­ity. You still make strong deci­sions. Tran­scen­dence is not rolling over and play­ing dead. It is ris­ing above the high­est obsta­cles through atti­tude. “What” is not as change­able as “how” in life. We even­tu­ally have to choose how we will see what hap­pens to us. It can be grace­ful or ugly.
On any given day, you will face a list of inevitable sit­u­a­tions. From car trou­ble to impos­si­ble rela­tion­ships, the string of prob­lems are headed your way. The more your higher spirit chooses the course, the bet­ter it all goes. The spirit is active when it is pas­sive and pas­sive when it is active. It is the water that wears away the rock. It goes around, over, and under the obsta­cles with a bit of glee on its never end­ing journey.