Being really Lucky … ( 03 / 17 / 2012 )
Being really Lucky … ( 03 / 17 / 2012 )
Today is St . Patrick ’ s Day … a day of luck and revelry ; a day when we tend to wish for more of the former , while often engaging in an excess of the latter . Fair enough … I too have yearned for more good fortune in my life … I too have engaged in some full-tilt celebrations .
And yet , maybe today is also a good day to re-examine just what it means to be “ lucky ”, and just what it means to truly “ celebrate life ”.
First , a look at LUCK …
“ Any fool can have bad luck ; the art consists in knowing how to exploit it .” ~ Frank Wedekind
Good times are going to find us — no doubt about it . And it is a great thing to revel in them when they do ; to honor their arrival with deep laughter , Soulpiercing gratitude , & even a touch joyfully raucous rambunctiousness … AND YET “ bad times ” are going to find us as well . We are going to be in pain … We are going to be ill &/ or injured … We are going to lose loved ones … We are going to have our regular bouts with sadness , anger , fear & frustration . Such struggles come to every human being ; they are part of what this amazing journey of being conscious is all about . No matter how hard we strive or pray or hope , difficult times are going to come to us — and they are going to keep on coming .
Traditionally , these painful periods are judged as “ unfortunate ”, and we have been taught to either “ wait them out ” until they pass , or engage in various practices that will bring back the “ happy times ”. Indeed , you can visit any local bookstore to find hundreds , if not thousands , of “ self-help ” books dedicated to helping us to identify & destroy the sources of such “ bad luck ” … Well , there is another way to look at things — there is another way to CELEBRATE life . I won ’ t call it a “ better ” way , but it is available to you , and I think it is at least worth a try or two .
And this other way involves our innate gift of choice — the power we all have to choose how we view difficult situations , as well as to choose how we to respond to them . In this other way , when pain arrives in our lives , instead of striving to remove it or fix it ; instead of hopelessly waiting for it to pass and for life to then “ get better ”, we can choose to proactively USE THE PAIN to empower our lives — to make every act of subsequent Kindness a life-changing event .
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