Smooth Sailing

Don’t you love it when you have everything all figured out and life is just smooth sailing? Isn’t it great when you finally have all the time you need to do those things you most want to do? How wonderful is it to not have to worry about money anymore and finally have that nest egg put away and plenty of cash on hand for anything you may want or need? Isn’t it grand to have peace of mind, to be healthy and fit, and not have a care in the world. And how lovely it is to have found the perfect partner to share it all with. Damn life is good!

For some that are very fortunate there may be brief times like these however, life simply is not like this nor is it suppossed to be. It is the nature of life to present us with a series of negative and positive experiences. No matter how good you are, how hard you pray, how skilled you are at manifesting what you want; life has challenges and sometimes they are tough.

It is tempting to buy into the notion that there will be a magical time like I described above where everything is A-Ok. Often we wait for those times to come to take advantage of the "right time". This can lead to putting off things we really want thinking our time will come later. Sadly, that is not always the case.
That is not to say that our lives never get better, in some ways they do in and in others they may not. But hopefully we get better at living as time passes so life seems easier even if in reality life is not all that different, we become different.

The nature of all things is to have a negative and a positve charge. It is the flow of energy to fluctuate between two oppositely charged poles. A simple battery is useless without both a negative and positive end. Just try cutting of the negative pole and see how much power you get. This is how everyhting in nature works to stay balanced pulling from both the negative and the positive provides energy.

But it is also natural to want to disperse with the negative and hard stuff to focus only on the positive and good. We fool ourselves into thinking we can create all good all the time and just be happy. Certainly, I believe we can choose to be happy but happiness does not mean constant bliss. I think we can and should choose our responses to circumstances and take a positve approach to the challenges that come our way. But I also believe that in struggle we find strength. In the negative experiences of our lives we develop insight and understanding. That our darkest hours are the best teachers of compassion both for ourselves and others and that while we all like to share laughter and joy it is sorrow that can truly unite us.

Sure, we all like the periods of time when things work well but during these times we can become smug and think we have it all figured out. We could subscribe to the popular teaching that we create and choose everything or that nothing that happens is bad or negative. That we are the center of the universe and are in control of all we experience. We may think that all the great stuff that happens is because we deserve it or have earned it and when everything falls apart it must be because we have failed in some way. I could never buy into all of that thinking for more reasons than I will get into here. Suffice to say that this type of thinking leads to judging and blaming. Mostly of ourselves for doing or being something wrong when life does not go our way. It leaves us with a needless sense of guilt or shame and undue responsibility for anything that goes awry. This type of thinking also undermines our ability to understand the plight of others and fosters finger pointing and blame. This makes no sense to me and just causes additional suffering and separation for everyone.

Instead, I subscribe to the idea of acceptance. Accept that life will bring you an abundant mixture of positive and negative, it will not always be what or when you want it. Accept that not everything and almost nothing is under your control and as such is probably not your fault. Understand that you do not have to try to earn your way to a perfect life by behaving in a certain way or that attaining a level of holiness or enlightenment will protect you from all evil. Recognize that you will enjoy many things that will add to your experience of life and that you will also suffer many things that will deepen your experience of life as well. Know that you will not want everything that comes your way, take it anyway and let it shape you. Accept all of who you are, trust that you are enough and know you are always becoming more.