Struggle

It's interesting I thought, recently, of how much struggle is a part of our lives and how much I get tired of it and don't want it anymore. When things get tough I want to one of two things: just get through as quick as possible or not be in it at all.

I'm in the process of getting to know someone new. I know this person has a lot of junk in their life, do I really want to get to know them, as a close friend, because they have all this baggage? Maybe I don't. That's kind of sad. That thought made me think of how I don't like struggle. I just want to be left alone. Selfish huh?

Struggle is a part of my life wether I like it or not. It's here to stay. Right now I'm at school and the projects come thick and fast, you really don't have a lot of time to rest easy; the deadlines are always on me. I seem to go in and out of struggle and it can get tiring. I reach a point of, "ah, yes, I've got it," and then I'm going down again saying, "I'm confused again" (more struggle).

I understand that without struggle, there would be no growth. If I refuse to struggle then I won't grow. If all I want to do is run from it (or people) and go sit on a couch by myself and watch TV, where is the growth and where is the change?

In nature there is struggle everywhere. It's all over the place. Plants struggle through the winter, calves struggle to walk, and a penguin struggles through the cold harsh weather to protect its egg. There's something in that. It would be interesting to go out walking in the fall and contemplate the beauty that comes out of the struggles found in nature. Maybe that would give me hope for getting through the tough bits.

For the next stage of my seed growing animation I am overlaying the word 'earth' doing three movements; hardening, cracking and softening. Hopefully this will simulate the process of struggle for the seed, that it starts in adverse conditions and dies but eventually out of it, comes a beautiful, edible plant.