I once came across a beautiful story.
A man, overwhelmed by life, had decided to end it.
As he sat there, he heard the voice of an animal.
The animal seemed to ask him:
“Why are you human beings like this?
You have been given hands that can create.
You have legs that can carry you across the earth.
You have strength.
You have a mind that can imagine worlds that do not yet exist.
We animals have so little.
Yet we live.
We eat when there is food.
We rest when we are tired.
We move when it is time to move.
We receive what comes.
And we continue.”
Perhaps there is something quietly beautiful in that thought.
Everything around us seems to live this way.
The tree does not refuse the rain because it had expected sunshine.
The bird does not stop flying because the wind changed direction.
The animal does not ask life to first become certain before taking its next step.
It simply lives.
Perhaps we humans have made life more complicated.
We plan.
We calculate.
We imagine what should happen.
We worry about what might happen.
And sometimes, when life refuses to follow our plans, we feel that something has gone terribly wrong.
But perhaps life was never meant to be completely controlled.
Look around us.
The tree receives the rain.
The bird adjusts to the wind.
The animal takes the path that opens before it.
They do what they can with what life gives them.
They don’t give up on life.
They simply don’t insist that life must happen in a particular way.
Perhaps this is where surrender begins.
Not in giving up.
Not in becoming passive.
But in allowing life to be what it is, while continuing to do what is ours to do.
We do what is ours to do.
We receive what comes.
We accept help when it comes.
We let go when something leaves.
And we continue walking.
Someone may offer us water.
We drink.
Someone may walk with us for a while.
We walk together.
Someone may leave.
We let them go.
And if nobody comes, we still take the next step.
There is no demand that the journey happen in a particular way.
Perhaps this is what surrender really means.
Not refusing help.
Not depending upon it either.
Not standing alone out of pride.
Not holding on because we are afraid of being alone.
Just remaining open to whatever the journey brings.
Perhaps the animals around us have known this all along.
They do not seem to need life to explain itself before they live it.
They simply live.
And perhaps we too can learn to do the same.
To plan when planning is needed.
To act when action is ours.
To receive when something is offered.
To let go when something leaves.
And then…
to keep walking.
Perhaps surrender is not about stopping the journey.
Perhaps it is about walking without demanding that the road happen on our terms.
