Obstacles as Creative Opportunities: St. Hildegard’s Gifts for You, Part 7
Challenges are a part of life. Whether we embrace them or try to avoid them, we all come up against roadblocks in our life from time to time. They could come from other people or circumstances that enter our path.  Or a tragedy or devastating event that brings us pain.  Or they may even be internal challenges – our own lack of energy or motivation, inability to focus, or limiting beliefs.
Often like a bolt of lightning, challenges come into our lives and jolt us awake. How can we learn to stay strong, instead of crumble under the pressure?  How can we learn to see the opportunity or gift that may be presenting itself within the challenge?

Obstacles that come into your path are opportunities for you to grow beyond your current state. To break through the ceiling of your perceived limitations.

Yet they may be difficult to view this way when you’re in the midst of the storm and feeling trapped or ready to drown.  How do we transform them to help us move forward instead of being stuck in the current circumstances?

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Obstacles, if not overcome, can overwhelm and stop you from moving forward in the vision for your life’s journey.  They can keep you stuck, usually in fear, unable to take action in order to grow.

St. Hildegard, in the second part of Scivias, shares a vision that we can use when coming up against challenge, “lmagine a very bright fire which is….wholly living, …and it is blazing violently… And imagine this flame lighten in color and give forth a bolt of lightning.”

And she continues, sharing how this bolt of lightning that may come into your life actually leads to a clearing and a cleansing of the air, “Behold, the air…– suddenly rising up, and the flame sending sparks into the air, thereby leading the air to perfection. The air sparkles and is put in order…”
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And this even brings a gift, a new creative force into being, “After that, this flame sends forth some of its fire to a little clod of muddy earth which is lying on the ground. This flame makes this little clod warm so that a body and blood are brought forth. This flame breathes into this body and blood, and a person is brought forth. With this finished, the bright fire… brings the whitest of flowers to this person…”

Take a moment to look back into your life.  Where have you had challenges that now, you can see were creative opportunities for growth in your life?  What were the “whitest of flowers” or gifts from the situation? What do you appreciate now, looking back?

Be grateful for your own resiliency to come out of the darkness and grow! Celebrate – with joy and love – the you that has evolved through these moments! Offer appreciation and gratitude for the enduring light that shines in your life – the “whitest of flowers”, as St. Hildegard says.

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Now that you’ve considered the past, come to the present moment.  What obstacles present themselves to you today?  How can you see them as creative opportunities for growth? Let me offer some contemplative questions for you.
  • Identify an obstacle that’s present in your life today.
  • Consider how it began – when, where, how, why?  What triggered it?
  • How does this obstacle interfere with your path in life – your relationships, your gifts to share with others, your goals, your well-being?
  • What creative opportunity is being presented here? Imagine what might arise in your life if you were able to transform this obstacle into an opportunity?  How would you be empowered to move forward?  What positive changes would arise? How would you grow?  Picture yourself already in this moment.
  • Ask your higher self or spirit guides for guidance in discovering the next steps needed to reach this moment beyond the obstacle.

Use this practice for several days in a row and see what “whitest flower” arises in your life.

Check out the many resources available to support you on your spiritual journey in my Free Healing Library here. 

“Instead of asking “what’s the problem?” ask “what’s the creative opportunity?” Deepak Chopra