Joy Within Life’s Trials

You can maintain your equilibrium, even while in the trenches.

Life can be sweet, even within the trials and tribulations.

It’s not about faking happiness while you’re actually drowning. It’s not about grinning and bearing it.

It’s a deeper attunement.

It requires learning to HONOR the both/and…
and that there are layers to every experience.

As humans, we are indoctrinated into black/white thinking.

So when something “bad” happens, we automatically feel “bad.”

When we’re in a “bad situation” we fret, despair, and lament being in that “negative” predicament.

The perplexing plight we are in may be AWFUL.
But always it has layers…
Layers we are wise to track.
Layers of humor, absurdity, spectacle, and adventure.

It can be tragic, sad, sorrowful, and stressful, whatever we are going through.

But if we look closer, we see pixie dust.

We see the breadth, the scope, the vastness of life. The hills, valleys, meadows, and caves.

All of them hold treasure.

We are wise to cash in on that wealth.
Our wealth of experience.

And if we’re stuck in a one-note of “pure suffering,”there’s no way we can mine for the reward that’s attached.

There is treasure in having the experience itself.
A forging in the fire.

There is treasure in seeking the higher meaning.

There is treasure in figuring out what the lessons and takeaways are.

There is treasure in seeing the silver lining.

There is treasure in tracking the truth that everything is happening FOR US… and THROUGH US… and AS US.

There is treasure in remembering that this world can be one raging $hit Show… where the wildest things happen.

And where we can get mercilessly crucified.

And that’s part of life’s design.
And it’s the very embodiment of life on life’s terms.
Life operating not on OUR TERMS, but on its own terms.

You can find your joy, even within your suffering.

You can stay serene, even while in the vice grip.

You can appreciate the experience, even as it’s hellacious.

The walls may be outright caving in…
And yet there’s pleasure to be found there.
There’s intrigue to be found there.
There’s curiosity, fascination…
Even gratitude..
For the outrageous plotline of our life.

Love + Oneness,
Naomi