How our life shapes us

I wander around the Rodin sculpture galleries at the Legion of Honor, which are filled with forms of human bodies, angels, and faces emerging from blocks of marble and bronze. The natural light gives the sculptures a living quality. As I look closely at each piece, I can feel the touch of the artist from the bumpy and uneven surfaces that show the molding of finger impressions. I notice that some of the forms seem to emerge from their material, such as the back of a head and a long spine coming out of a bronze block. They look as though they are still being formed and created.

I feel like one of these sculptures, being shaped and formed from the hands of time and the experiences of my life. Our life creates us, in the act of living, every day. I see this so clearly, while visiting with a friend who just turned eighty. Each line on her face holds her life experiences: building a successful non-profit, surviving cancer, meditating for thirty years, raising a family, and now living without her husband who passed away last year.

From the years of our friendship, I have caught a glimpse of the way life shapes a person. What I have learned from her is the need to receive life and not always try to control it. It is often not what  happens to us in our lives, but the way we respond to our experiences that shapes who we are.

Perhaps life is more about yielding, receiving what is, and learning to release the tight grip that is burning our skin. Can we learn to see and accept our lives as emerging like Rodin sculptures? Can we see ourselves as a mountain that is shaped over time from the wind, the sand, the rain, and the sun? The elements of life are shaping us, and all we have to do is allow ourselves the freedom to surrender and be surprised by the mystery.