Stuff happens.
I am not the only one. You are not the only one. We are not the only ones to experience stress, difficulty, frustration and painful experiences. What happens to me or you happens to ALL of us. There is no conspiracy against us. We are not the laboratory rats of the universe.
My age may be showing, but I do remember poor old “btfsplk” of the Lil’ Abner comics. (precursor to the now ancient ‘Beverly Hillbillies’?)
The bad stuff does happen to everyone, not just the “btsfplks of the world, and there’s really no one right answer to “Why Bad Things Happen to Good People.” (Quite a catchy book title and a question about which more than one book has been written!)
As we know, but hate being reminded of,
- life is terminal,
- life is what happens while we are busy making other plans,
- the sun shines on both the righteous and the unrighteous, and
- we each experience the results of the choices we’ve made.
I remember reading from the philosopher Jim Rohn:
“It is not what happens to you that makes the difference of how your life works out; what happens to you happens to all of us. It’s how you respond to what happens to you that determines the major outcome of your life.”
And we do really know this truth, but sometimes we just feel like complaining!
And we do really know that our experience is indeed the result of our perception and our naming of it.
And we do really know that, just like everyone else, we are surrounded by beauty, abundance, opportunities, creativity, friendships that we can choose to focus on.
It’s our choices within our experiences that make our lives, our days, our challenges. And our choices determine how much joy and happiness we will experience.
So, do you agree?