madi's blog.

I’m not gonna lie, the past few months have been pretty difficult.

Last year, I worked harder than I’ve ever worked before. I worked so hard that I couldn’t see the ocean of monumental change creeping up on me, a few inches at a time, and when I finally opened my mouth to breathe, I realized I was drawing in water.

Now I’ve broken the surface, rich oxygen filling my lungs to burst, and my vision is clear. Life is constantly changing, and I’ll never be able to keep up with it unless I start making some changes myself. The world will do some of the work for me, but taking charge of my life means governing these tides of change to the best of my abilities.

Change, however, can be difficult. In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned to an eternity of rolling a boulder up a hill. Every time he finally reached the top, he lost control and the boulder went spiraling back to the bottom again.

How do we stop ourselves from being like Sisyphus? How do we make effective, lasting changes in our lives that will help us push the boulder over the summit? I don’t know that there’s one right answer, but I’ll tell you what I’m going to do:

I’m going to chisel away at my boulder.

“But that’s against the rules! Sisyphus didn’t get to make his boulder any smaller!”

Everyone accrues unnecessary burdens throughout their walks of life. Maybe Sisyphus never stopped to lighten his load, but being a mythological figure, he wasn’t in control of his story. Maybe he would have if he had the choice.

I am in control of my story, and I’m going to take advantage of the choice Sisyphus didn’t have. I’m going to shed old habits, clean up long-standing messes, and strengthen my body and mind until I can shove my boulder over the peak and watch it topple down the other side.

Changes are coming. 🙂

Song of the Day: “light moving” by David Lang