- The traffic ticket I received may have been "for" me to avoid the fatal crash that could have happened further down the road. Yes it tied me up for a bit, but it also saved my life had it not happened. Too extreme? I guess that's up to you and how you look at things.
- Children grow up and move away, and parent(s) might be left lonely. Oh how rich and amazing your life has been as you've watched the miracle of raising children over the years...Yet when they leave, how it opens up the space in your life for other wonderful things to rush in to enhance and enrich your life even more.
"When you change the way you look at things, the things that you look at...CHANGE"
~ Wayne Dyer
How hard it might be though, to see a painful situation and think that it happened "for" us in anyway... (abuse, neglect, freedoms and choices being taken away from us without our consent or control)... I admit that there are many circumstances that others have had to face that I personally never have faced at all. One might say "that it sounds great in theory Matt, but you haven't gone through what I have, so you don't know." That is very true... However here is what I DO know. How we choose to handle life's challenges IS entirely up to each and every one of us.
- A woman who is abused (no I've never personally experienced this) that eventually decides she is going to start a battered women's shelter to help others that have experienced such a horror... I would say that she is not choosing the victim mentality, but a stepping stone mentality.
- My dear friend who lost her very young son in a tragic accident that started a foundation to help other parents that have been hit with similar situations. These parents now have their children in the hospital, fighting for their children's lives, yet they can not afford the medical bills that are continuing to mount up higher and higher. She has taken what has happen in her life as a stepping stone, and created something that brings light and hope to others.
How we choose to respond is ALWAYS up to us!
Its hard to sometimes practice this mentality of gratitude for the things that life brings us... Certainly one of those philosophies that seems to resonate as we're discussing it logically on a blog, but when the winds of life blow us over, can we keep it in mind and practice it when we need to the most? Repetition is the mother of all skill. When we lose sight of this way of thinking from time to time, there's nothing wrong with reminders along the way... Recommitting and starting fresh with renewed and refreshed perspective.
Stepping Stones... Nothing happens TO us, but only FOR us.
Try it on...take it for a spin...you might like it! :)
Yes!
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing that you keep posting these. I was just told this yesterday about my husband walking out on us. Instead of blaming myself, that I have to remember that there is another plan and that maybe him leaving was to help ensure we all had a better future. I had never thought of it that way. I am starting to believe. I feel more free already. Thank you for the reminder! :)
When I saw this quote by Ramesh Balsekar I straightaway remembered your post about stepping stones. And though it's wandering from the point I've thought you might like it:
ReplyDelete"Words must be used like stepping stones: lightly and with nimbleness, because if you step on them too heavily, you incur the danger of falling into intellectual mire of logic and reason".
M