Finding joy in adversity...

Life is an adventure, it is a journey, full of all the joy and hope and sorrow and sadness that anyone of us, I am sure, can give testament to. We each have come upon our own trials and tribulations, have found ourselves head first up against the many barriers and walls that so often seem to be right there in front of us; do we knock them down, climb over them, or as is often the most simple, just walk around them til we get to the other side? I have found that rather than avoiding a situation it is best to confront it, this is of course the hardest path to take because it causes the most friction, it give us the most resistance. But it must be said that by facing our problems head on, facing up to what blocks us, we learn, we progress through a "hard time", and rather then simply ignoring such an occurence we deal with it, move on, and don't have to worry about it rearing its ugly head again.

Each thing that we have to fight for, work for, is worth more! It can definitely be said that life would be easier if we simply just didn't care enough to fight our way through and then just sailed on our merry way, but I don't thnk life is meant to be easy. I mean if life were meant to be this paradise of bliss and joy and fulfilled desire there would not be this constant yearning to become more, to learn more, to experience more. Life is hard, we each know that, but how often do we contemplate that each and every situation we have been through is in fact a piece of a puzzle that is perhaps to large for our human eyes to see, that even though we might not be able to see the "big picture" does not mean that we should stop searcing for the "pieces" that make it complete. That is life, life is the desire to complete the "picture", to obtain those bits and pieces that go to make us a whole.

We should not be afraid to face things head on, to confront our adversaries, to overcome out obstacles; when we do so we are the ones who lose, no one else, just us. I wish I could say otherwise, but no ones else cares enough either to do it for you because they are too busy getting through, or avoiding, all of their own barriers in life. It must be said though that when we do face these barries in our life and come to terms with our life situation and circumstances, we win more than we ever could lose. It is frightening I admit, and one must be courageous and bold and have strength, but really it is a matter of Will and of Heart, because really once we know what we seek, most of us would say Truth, which is the foundation of both the True Heart and the True Will, we know that with each ordeal that is passed we are one more step closer to discovering Truth; which is really just us removing the veils of illusion that hide from us that we are ourselves manifestations of Truth, that we Love and that we are Beauty incarnate.

I know many will say it's too hard, it is difficult, but that is the way of all things. All that is worth anything, is something that must be worked for, those who seek the easy way out leave this life with just about as much as they came into it with. We all want so desparately to Become, not more, not greater, but simply to BE. The conundrum in all of this however is that in order to Be we must Become, and if we are to Become, we have to embrace Life in all it's aspects, the good, the evil, the joyous and the sorrowful, we can not accept one half of Life, ignoring the other half, and expect to have anything but a mediocre life. If we want to live life to the fullest we have to dive head first into the pool and just hope we don't drown. Avoidance is the fool's route and not much will be reaped from walking this path but fools gold, and that is nothing.

Remember, that our time here is limited and yet we each fill that our Work is more than we could ever accomplish, in fact it is so, that not one of us ever completes the work of the Soul in just one lifetime. Does this mean we forfeit the work that needs to be done simply due to its being "too hard"? No, this means that we press on with the daily reminder that Death is always at our doorstep, knowing each day that passes could be our last, and with this thought in mind we must really get on with it or we get left behind; or even worse, we regret when the day comes for us to "meet out maker" and we wish we would have done things differently and with that will come the horrible realisation that it's too late.

By going through the darkness we come to the light enshrined therein. Do not be afraid.