The Struggle

In life, we have setbacks, challenges, trials or whatever you want to call them.  They are the rocks in our path, the handicaps that slow us down, the thorns that hurt our hands.  However you label them, they have always been blamed for being the 'bad' part of life.  So, this morning, while I was just thinking about some of the recent events of my life, I saw something I did not expect.  I saw myself struggling to reach a goal, working hard, sacrificing, and striving.  Then I saw myself during that process sometimes weighed down with discouragement, wondering whether or not I would succeed.  So far, all of this probably sounds familiar, like something most of us have been through time and again.  Well, then I saw the unexpected thing.  I saw myself achieving goals, accomplishing some of the things I had set out to do and finding great joy in it.  Then I saw in my mind's eye, others who had not had to struggle so much, accomplishing the same tasks and finding little or no joy in it for themselves.

Now this may not seem like a breakthrough in atomic physics, but to me, it marked a major shift in my thinking.  I realized in that moment that it was precisely because of having to overcome my difficulties that my joy was so great upon accomplishment.  Without them, I would be like the other people I knew who had done the same thing but had simply expected it, or taken it for granted.

Take for example someone I know who learned to
play the piano. It came easily and quickly to her.  Reading notes, playing scales and learning songs was as easy as walking or talking for her.  When people said that she had a gift, she merely shrugged her shoulders and kept on playing, for fun.  And that's all it ever was for her: fun.  And there was no reason it should be anything else, right?  Now, take another girl who, from birth was given the prognosis that she would not live to be one year old.  Her mother took care of her and she did live.  Then the mother was told that the girl would be a vegetable, severely mentally and physically handicapped.  The child still grew, and learned not only to walk and talk, but to communicate freely.  The mother, not satisfied with this progress, at the child's request, began to teach the girl to play the piano.  The ordinary methods were too complicated for the girl, so the mother invented a new system of notes that the girl could understand and read.  When I first met this severely mentally and physically handicapped girl, she played "You Light Up My Life" on the piano, with no help from her mother.  Then, not only the mother and child, but all of us in that room were filled with joy and wonder in that moment, at the miracle of overcoming obstacles.

What I'm getting at is that most of the time, I have thought of setbacks as some sort of 'bad karma' in my life and have felt a little bit sorry for myself.  (OK, a LOT sorry sometimes).  But I see now that the obstacles were actually the power behind the greatest joys in my life.  So, for example, my singing voice, that was labeled 'damaged', caused me the greatest joy when I was able to perform an extremely difficult piece for an audition and someone said that they enjoyed it. 

I began to see my whole life differently.  No longer did I feel that life had dealt me some bad cards, but that when I had tough situations I realized that they could be turned into opportunities for greater joy, and that's worth celebrating right now!