Suffering Can Bring Out the Best in Us

There’s a lot more to making good lemonade than just the lemons.

Photo by Sherise . on Unsplash

Everything is relative.

And a matter of comparison.

You can’t have light without the dark. You can’t know happiness unless you’ve shed some tears. You don’t appreciate what it feels like to be loved if you’ve never been alone and felt longing.

Suffering is the same. If we’re never deprived of something, how can we ever appreciate what it’s like to have it in the first place?

Suffering has a way of weeding out the stuff we don’t need and bringing what is vital into view for the first time.

If everything were good all the time, then the important stuff would just blend in with the rest of the trivial stuff. You wouldn’t know how good you had it because you never had it bad. And since last March, things have gotten mighty miserable.

Times like these are the kind that tests us, and if we can rise to the occasion, it will make us more resilient. Everything takes practice.

Life owes us nothing. It’s up to us to learn to navigate the rough terrain and darkened roadways.

Consider this a time to build-up your patience. It’s a rare virtue and something that will never stop serving you. I have a lot of work to do on this front.

It’s tempting to want to blame and complain. You may want to curl up in the fetal position and hide under the covers in the fetal position. Or fly away to Never Land. I’d love to join you.

But we can’t. The choice is to accept and make the best of things, use this time for something productive. Or waste it kicking and screaming. To paraphrase a Buddhist saying, “It’s like standing at the edge of creation shaking your fist.”

Stupid and useless.

What’s the lesson life is giving us?

First World Problems

Compared to many others, we have first-world problems. We will survive this pandemic. We will be well-fed, have water for drinking, bathing, cleaning our clothes.

And don’t forget binging your favorite shows on television.