Rarely, if ever, do all the traffic lights line up green to let you effortlessly reach your destination.

We could complain about this. We could try and game the system by slowing down and speeding up accordingly but neither strategy will feel quite right.

Another alternative is to understand that traffic lights are specifically programmed to prevent a solid row of green that run on for you indefinitely. You're going to have to stop periodically, perhaps to your great consternation.

With our expectations adjusted, we can relax and discover — despite the "limitation" — a certain kind of freedom because we are no longer trying to change something through force of will that can't be changed.

Similarly, we are always going to face some hurdle or challenge that seems to get in the way of where we want to go.

Hurdles, paradoxically, get us to where we want to go. They are the needed forms of resistance that, if allowed, transform our understanding of the way things are, which then transforms our values, actions, and habits, ultimately creating a deeper and more fulfilling experience of life.

Hurdles teach through difficulty. The greater the difficulty, the greater the opportunity for a rewarding shift in consciousness.

It's not that we want to particularly pray for great difficulty to get the massive change, it's more we want to put difficulty in its proper context so that we do not fight against it when it arrives.

Like the traffic lights, you will have stretches of wide open, free road. Enjoy these times. There will also, invariably, be periods where you will be under varying degrees of duress. You can even enjoy these times too, recognising they are a beautiful part of the whole, though they do not necessarily taste as sweet.

The path of peace involves reconciling the good and the bad and the dark and the light. We understand they are the same energy in different dress and we begin to prefer not one over the other.

Our preference is for what is. Nothing more. Nothing less.