Our trials, injuries, betrayals, abandonments and hardships are not ammunition for resentment and pessimism. They are not to be used to create a grim model of the world and our relationship with it.

They are, in fact, the spiritual ‘sandpaper’ against which the crude aspects of our mind and the primitive aspects of our soul condition are ‘painfully rubbed’ both to bring them to our immediate and direct attention, and also to process them so that we can surpass them. As we rub against these things, often painfully, we may be transformed in ways our actual hopes and dreams -cannot deliver- because they are too naive or simplistic.

Our hardship is a blessing. Unless we decide it is a curse, in which case, we increase it, and cannot truly receive its benefits, for we have chosen to deny them in favor of hatred, fear, resentment, confusion, alienation, and victimhood. It is surprising how challenging it can be to remain aware of this. In case it is not clear: I am aware of this because I am challenged by it.