The “easy” yoke…

Life is hard. Or it’s confusing. Or both. It’s definitely not “easy”, right? I guess sometimes life feels “good”, but I think that even then, in those moments, that we wouldn’t say it’s “easy”. I think more than anything else, when life feels “easy” we almost feel like we got lucky in that moment. A moment that, for a moment, felt good. Or easy. Anyway, that’s the point of mini paragraph #1. Life is hard. Fact.

But that’s the beauty of it, right? And maybe the point.

There’s nothing worse than someone who constantly complains about how hard life is. I have a theory on this. It’s because we KNOW how hard life is. Every single person knows. It’s part of the fabric of who we are. If you’re poor, life is hard. If you’re rich, life is hard. (well maybe it’s a little easier if you’re rich, but rich people commit suicide every day, sooo…)

Almost everyone I know has experienced massive life trauma at some point. Divorce, death, illness, depression, isolation, etc… Seriously, take a look around you. Look at the people you know. Everybody has SOMETHING. And I look in the mirror and I look at the ways that I am broken, and I see others and I see the ways that they are broken and I realize that that’s what makes us all who we are. It’s what makes our eyes do what they do, it’s what makes our arms hang the way that they hang, it’s what makes our voice sound the way it sounds.

There are these insane moments that we all go through that just shatter us. Sometimes we realize what’s happening, sometimes we don’t. But I have a theory that these are the moments that make life BETTER (and of course, “better” is a subjective term). Well, I think they make life better if we are willing to let them make life better. And that depends on our perspective.

Did someone leave you? Let them go.
Did someone hurt you? Figure out a way to love them.
Did someone wrong you? Do something right for them.
Did life derail your train completely? Figure out what’s good about the new track.
Does someone owe you? Forgive their debt.

If we ACTUALLY did these things, our lives would improve, I’m sure of it.

I’m not trying to preach, these are just things that I have actually learned. Am I good at these things? Sometimes yes, mostly no. But I have found in my 29 years on this planet that these are the things that make life GOOD. Because we can NEVER control the things that happen to and around us, but we CAN control how we react to them and how we treat the people around us. I can look in the mirror in the morning as I’m brushing my teeth and I can say to the mirror…”I forgive so and so”. Or I can say…”I can love so and so”. Or I can say…”I can do this today and I can do that today”. Sometimes it takes saying it a few times before we believe it, but I think eventually it works.

Life is hard. It’s hard because it’s hard. But I think that living like we’re ENTITLED to something makes it even harder. Living like we are trying to ENRICH something (or someone) makes it good. Really good. And I think it might actually be that simple.

And now I’m going to go try to live like that. Good luck to me.