I don’t believe in “allowing” everything that happens in my life, or the lives of the people around me, or the larger life of the world.

Some things need to be resisted to one’s final breath. But there are other things, important things, that cannot be resisted, and much depends on whether I have the wit and grace to yield.

When it comes to those things, this poem is an important reminder about the power of what might be called “creative non-resistance.”

Allow
by Danna Faulds

There is no controlling life.
Try corralling a lightning bolt,
containing a tornado. Dam a
stream and it will create a new
channel. Resist, and the tide
will sweep you off your feet …

(Excerpted. Read the full poem here.)