SHOUTING AT THE MOON

A GIFT IN EVERYTHING

Rhonda Byrne, creator of “The Secret” writes: "Look for the gifts in everything, especially when you are facing what appears to be a negative situation. Everything that we attract causes us to grow, which means that ultimately everything is for our own good.... Adjusting to a new path and a new direction will require new qualities and strengths, and these qualities are always exactly what we need to acquire in order to accomplish the great things ahead in our life.”

Do you find yourself shouting at the moon: “Why me?!?” Or...even shouting at God: “How could you do this to us?!?!” If we live from the perspective that we live in a universe in which the so-called “good” people (you and me) are rewarded and the so-called “bad” people (them) are punished by a force or a God that doles out the rewards and punishments, then it is understandable that we are often found shouting at the moon or shouting at God when we are faced with difficult and painful circumstances.

“Why would God let this horrible thing happen to me?” is the kind of question many of us may ask, when we are in abject pain and needing to blame something, someone, as we grapple with the frustration and confusion of feeling that life's challenges and pains are “unfair” and “cruel”.

When our relationship with God is on the basis of a business deal, in which we have promised to be good, in return for which we believe that God will take care of us by sparing us the pain and suffering of life, then we can feel let down – even betrayed – by God or the Universe.

However, if we can expand our relationship with God or the Universe to include the notion that everything that happens in our life is some form of blessing, and that God or the Universe wants only the best of what life has to offer, then even the toughest of trials and difficulties takes on another dimension.

Byron Katie, in her book Loving What Is, muses that every time we spend any time or attention on wishing that something be something else, we lose. It is important to be willing to face what is right in front of us, and to ask the question: How can I make this a blessing and not a curse?

I maintain that Life is not unfair. Life just is. The way we each handle life is what makes the difference. It might appear that some people are holding a shitty deck of cards, while others are holding all the good ones. But whatever that hand is, we have learned that the game isn't necessarily won by the person who holds the best cards...right? It's all in how the cards are played.

I've often heard the story of Hershel, a man who had survived the Holocaust during World War II, endured the horrors of the death camps, watched his entire family be taken away and slaughtered, but he survived it all. Hershel scraped and clawed his way to freedom, barely alive in Auchwitz when the American troups liberated the camps in 1945. He struggled to survive, to live and to thrive. He found his way to America. Shortly after arriving in New York in 1947, after the war and after his liberation, Hershel was walking across Third Avenue and was hit by a bus and killed immediately. “Why would God let this happen to this poor man, who struggled so mightily to survive, only to be killed by a bus in NYC!?!?”

God wasn't driving the bus. Sam was driving the bus. Sam didn't see Hershel crossing the street...

Was all of Hershel's struggle to live in vain? I don't think so. His struggle and his persistence was part of his journey, and Hershel had also become a source of inspiration to hundreds of others around Hershel who were witness to his grit and persistence.

Everything is energy. We are all connected. We are each a part of one another, in more ways than we can every know.

Life is not about the destination, nor is it about how many years we live. It is always about the journey. It is about the little details of the steps we take along the path. It is about the choices we make inside each and every moment of our daily path called life. It is about how we define ourselves in our loving relationships with others, and with ourselves.

When we love someone, we want to have that person in our life always, don't we? But what is “always”... Take the word apart: “ALL...WAYS”... And how many ways can we love?

We love most fully when we simply love what is.

Blessings
Sheila