YIELDING

 Oddly enough, I actually look forward to seeing YIELD signs on the road when I’m driving, for they afford me a chance to once again surrender, something I mostly missed out on in my younger years. I grew up in a culture that equated surrendering with defeat and disgrace, so I became, like most of the guys I grew up with, a “fighter”, a guy who tried to never give in or give up. As the years passed, however, I slowly saw that surrendering sometimes brings conquest instead of defeat, sometimes shows strength instead of weakness. Rivers, after all, surrender to boulders and thus easily flow around them, and winds give in to mountains and thereby blow right by them. Submitting, I see now, can sometimes strengthen a person, and giving way can often get you a victory. I guess I’ve learned, over the years, that treating life like a war is a woeful way to live. I’ve set down my weapons, you might say. I’m yielding more often to the flow of life – and of cars. I’m raising the white flag, and finding force and joyfulness because of it.