“It takes tremendous maturity to meet life, to really meet life, to meet all of life and not make ourselves wrong in the suffering. And that’s what makes us radiant.” – Richard Moss.
Most people seem to believe that the situations in their lives determine whether or not they can be happy and contented – whether they can really enjoy living.
To make matters worse, they already have preconceived ideas about exactly what situations need to be present, for them to really enjoy living. If those things are absent, then their state if dissatisfaction is likely coming from their internal belief, “I can’t find enjoyment, because the only situations that could make me happy are missing”.
Many of us have been enculturated to see life (and ourselves) as good or bad. We have become used to the idea that everything must be measured by the standard of holy or evil, light or dark, acceptable or unacceptable. What if that isn’t the whole picture? What if we could more comfortably accept that many things in life are not going to meet our measure of fairness? What if we could really accept, as people do in some cultures and traditions, that it is a natural part of life to experience times of suffering, as well as times of joy? What if we could be open to whatever happens each day as part of our life’s journey, without ideas about what should be happening? What if we could be more accepting of ourselves and others in times of disappointment and suffering? Perhaps then, we and others might begin to see in us the radiance of greeting each new day with anticipation for whatever it may hold.
