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Overcoming is becoming
What you wrestle
You have mastered
-安天美
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The fundamental truth is that we are shaped by the challenges we face. Each struggle rewrites our identity, not as a separate event but as an integral part of who we are becoming. Our battles aren't interruptions to our journey but essential components of it.
When we fully confront what stands before us, we initiate a profound transformation. The person who emerges from significant challenge is fundamentally different from the one who entered it. Our capacity expands. Our understanding deepens. Our compassion grows more authentic. This isn't abstract philosophy but lived reality for anyone who has faced substantial adversity and moved through it.
"What you wrestle" calls us to recognise the value of direct engagement. Many of us instinctively avoid difficulty, seeking paths of least resistance. But this poem suggests something counterintuitive: that our most significant growth comes precisely from what we most wish to avoid.
Full engagement requires courage. It means turning toward pain rather than away from it. It means examining our fears instead of running from them. It means confronting injustice rather than pretending not to see it. When young activists stand before systems much larger than themselves, when artists create despite rejection, when individuals face personal demons they've long avoided, they demonstrate this courage. Their willingness to wrestle directly with what challenges them creates possibility where none existed before.
Mastery comes from lived experience. We cannot think our way to wisdom; we must live our way there. The challenges we face become our greatest teachers when we engage them fully rather than superficially.
This mastery differs fundamentally from domination. We don't conquer our challenges so much as integrate their lessons. What we struggle with becomes part of us, its wisdom absorbed into our being. The parent who has navigated a child's illness, the entrepreneur who has weathered business failure, the community that has survived collective trauma all carry within them an embodied knowledge that cannot be gained any other way. This knowledge becomes a foundation for everything that follows.
Transformation isn't a one-time event but a continuous process. Each challenge we overcome prepares us for the next one. Each instance of wrestling builds capacity for future engagement. Each mastery creates foundation for deeper wisdom.
This continuous becoming liberates us from the myth of arrival. We never reach a final destination where challenges cease and growth concludes. Instead, we participate in an ongoing spiral of development, bringing the wisdom of previous struggles to each new situation we face. This perspective transforms how we view difficulty. Rather than asking "Why is this happening to me?" we begin asking "What might I become through this experience?" This simple shift changes everything.
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<aside> <img src="/icons/backward_blue.svg" alt="/icons/backward_blue.svg" width="40px" /> Beyond Seeking
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<aside> <img src="/icons/forward_blue.svg" alt="/icons/forward_blue.svg" width="40px" /> Embodied Existence
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