Ganesha and the Snow Days

Last week I completed a Ganesha Mantra challenge –
40 days of 108 Om gang ganapataye namaha – om to the remover of obstacles, may my way be clear (very rough translation).

The last day of the challenge, I wrote a blog post but was not satisfied with it. Nothing overly significant seemed to have happened to report on. The post simply felt forced. I had completed my challenge but was I any different? No real obstacles had presented themselves. The way had been pretty clear. It was not very interesting. I threw it away.

Then the next day it started snowing. I immediately started hearing people talking about how they could not do what they had planned to do. How frustrating that was. People wrote scathing reviews of our horrible transit system that caused them to slow down. They got in their cars and ended up in 20 and more car pileups. The snow was a huge obstacle to life as usual and people were mad. Or, they were trying to make the best of it. They put chains on the car, walked to Starbucks, “just to get out” and posted on Facebook about “going stir crazy” and “thank goodness it is going to warm up and melt”.

I watched this with some interest and having just completed over a month of contemplating Ganesha did perhaps affect my response.

My path too, was blocked. Cancellations, nowhere to go, the chance to stay in and time to rest all presented themselves. Obstacles for certain to my usual, fully scheduled, on the go days. But I let go. I enjoyed the quiet and some time to do things that were wholly unproductive and meaningless. I read a novel and caught up on a couple of TV shows I like on Netflix. I cooked and ate some delicious meals. I enjoyed my home and view out the window without the need to go out. I danced in my living room. I did not experience the obstacle as a block, but rather as an opening.

And I realized that perhaps the removal of an obstacle is not about getting it out of the way at all. That maybe it isn’t about being able to go over, around or even through the obstacle. But simply to open to the opportunity that is presenting itself even if that is entirely different than the one you were looking for.