The opposite also applies. Blessings can be burdens, kindness can be manipulation, work can be something to suffer through while complaining and feeling miserable and put upon, loved ones can be out to screw us over, and we can feel nothing but bitter for everything and everybody.
The first option feels better, but the second option happens to all of us, some more than others. Some, in fact, mostly live in negativity with only window glimpses of joy. But there is so much joy to be felt. It's a shame. I, for one, choose joy instead as my most-of-the-time option. But suffering falls upon me too.
The challenge for us all is to learn how to transmute suffering into pleasure. It's possible, but takes attention and courage and time. Suffering happens. Hardship rains down upon us. There is pain and angst in living, and we are all forced to face our fears and our limitations. But these are the very things that stretch us and make us bigger and wiser and have more depth... exactly because we get through them. We come out on the other side. We survive and have our story to tell. The transmutation is in the survival and the hindsight that shows us that something positive always comes out of what we make it through. And we can learn! We don't have to repeat the same hardships over and over... unless we refuse to acknowledge our part and refuse to change our attitude and insist on misery and negativity instead. The loving force of living life will keep on urging us to the positive, but we can dig our feet in if we choose. It makes for a hard road, but it's a choice we all have.
I choose optimism today. I choose the positive perspective. And I know that manure is the best fertilizer. It is rich with all the nutrients that make things grow. So the manure of my life is what will grow me into greater gratitude and greater love and greater participation in all the wonders of the world.
I am willing to accept whatever happens. Just for today.
