GETTING THROUGH THE TOUGH STUFF

     We get through things in life. We are faced with difficult situations, some our own, and some happening to those we love. We are faced with extreme and sudden accidents, tragic deaths, slow, debilitating diseases, seemingly insurmountable obstacles, baffling mysteries, and incidents of all kinds. And somehow, against all odds, we make it through them. We make it through our distaste and our sadness and our rebellion and our fears. We summon up the courage to face what we do not want to face, and once we have taken the first step, the next step is revealed to us.
     We can't possibly imagine the higher-up steps, those further along the journey, until they are the next step; until they are right in front of us. By the time we get to them, they are not so fearful after all. They are the obvious next thing, and the next, and the next. Our path is revealed to us piecemeal. And that's how we get through everything; never more than we can handle, and one little bit at a time. We can try to take it all at once, hoping to get through it more quickly that way, but in spite of our anxiousness, everything happens in it's own time.
     If we want peace, if we want inner calm and a sense of well-being as we go through the things we go through, we will not push the river; we will not insist upon seeing or understanding more than life reveals. We will not let others influence us negatively with their un-helpful opinions on our situation. We will wait and trust. We will enjoy the day and let the future come how and when it comes.

I do not take on more than the day and the moment require. I am equal to the situation I am in. I don't have to take the next step until I have to take it.