How often do you think that if only the things that are hard could be erased from your life?
That then you could finally be happy?
That all the parts of your life that cause you to painfully stretch and dig really deep are the parts that are holding you back and you would do anything to just get rid of them?
Some of us try meditation, some of us cut people out of our lives, some of us try religion, some of us get gym memberships, some of us get into new relationships and some of us buy more stuff.
All in an attempt to get rid of the "problems" we have, and make our lives "better", make our lives easier.
Thinking that then we will finally feel happy!
For how many of us has that actually worked?
Maybe it did for a little while, but if we are being honest, how quickly did the new thing lose its shine? How quickly did the new relationship have the same problems, or the feelings of missing someone, make the old relationship seem not that bad?
How often did we just stop going to the gym or stop doing the new routine that was supposed to fix everything?
Only to beat ourselves up even more than before!
I can't even count the number of times this has happened to me!
In the past, I have believed that the easier and more pleasurable my life would be the more I would be happy and content!
That if my desires would just finally be filled I wouldn't need anything ever again.
I remind myself of a child in a toy store saying "Mom if you get me that thing I'll never need anything again!" or a teenager who says "Mom if you let me do this I'll never ask for anything ever again!"
Well, we all know how that normally turns out!
Sometimes we need to step back and take a look at our difficulties and problems and realize they are the very thing that is shaping us and creating character in us.
Doing hard things, experiencing pain, have things not go our way, these are the things that, if we let them, can bring out the best in us.
It's in these situations that we are forced to really look at our values and decide who we are and who we want to be.
It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:
"The fool stamps on the caterpillar and marvels at the butterfly. The same way you look down on your struggle and daydream about success, you must practice being inspired by both."
It's so easy to look at the good things in our lives and marvel at them, and then wish there was more of the good and less of the "bad."
But we need to remember the butterfly came from the caterpillar!
The good time, they are possible because of what we have gone through or what we have overcome!
We have good relationships because we do the hard work of forgiving.
We can be trusted because we do the hard work of telling the truth.
We can be compassionate because we know what pain feels like.
We reach out to others because we know what it feels like to be left out.
We love because we know what it feels like to be unloved.
So today lets stop and be inspired by it all!
Enjoy watching your caterpillars, they are struggling so that they can be butterflies!
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