Your life is your life. It is also Mine. The life you have I gave to you. I said, “Here, come to life.” And you said, “Yes, God, I will.” Or, perhaps it was you who asked. Perhaps you said, “God, give me life. Give it to me now. I can hardly wait.” In any case, We agreed that you would be born to life on Earth. It was that simple. And so you entered the world. When did dismay become a byword?
Undo dismay, beloveds. I set you on this voyage of life with your shoulders back and head held high. Bobbing in the world, you have yearned many times to know what life is about. “How did life begin?” you ask. You query life. You query yourself. You queried and queried, and then life became made up of worry, and so complaint began.
What made complaint a part of life? What made it so essential? Why does it exist, and why is it allowed? Too often you find life intolerable and yet you tolerate complaint. You complain readily enough.
I wonder why, in your brief term in life, would complaint takes precedence over happiness. What is so great about complaint? Does it take greatness to find something to complain about?
Life is like Christmas. A few days after, you stand in line wishing to return gifts. They didn’t fit you or something. In any case, they don’t suit you. And so you wish to return or exchange some of the gifts of life.
Let’s make another line for you to stand in. We can call it Appreciation. We can call it Thank you. You can’t stand in two lines at the same time. Which line will you choose to stand in? I suggest you take the line called Appreciation. A for Appreciation comes before C for Complaint. I suggest you be first in line for Appreciation.
Perhaps Complaint is just a habit. In that case, create another habit. Stop complaining. Start appreciating. You will find appreciating just wonderful. You will favor it. Who wouldn’t favor appreciating? Who wouldn’t rather give to himself than take away? Let nothing take away your appreciation of this singular life you are living.
Welcome life, beloveds. Don’t begrudge it. Accept. Accept the rain that falls and the sun that shines. I will go so far as to say that you can turn rain into sunshine. Rain has its advantages. Getting wet has its advantages. Beloveds, you can turn even dross into gold.
If you must query every event in life, then ask to see the merit in every event. “What is the kernel of good here? What is there here that I can see in a good light?” I can hear your mind right now, affirming that there can be no possible good in what has not even yet befallen. Ahead of time, you ring the bells of doom. Beloveds, you are not doomed to complaint.
Life is not only heads or tails. When you get tails, it is not a calamity. Life is not all pure luck. You are the responder to life.
You may say your best china cup fell from your hand and broke into a hundred pieces, and you throw up your hands and say: “What is the possible good in the breaking of my best china cup?” Well, it is one less china cup to wash, one less china cup to dry, one less china cup to put away, to think about, to worry about. Where did the idea come from that it is such a terrible thing to break a cup?
Drink from another cup, or cup your hands at the lake of life and drink. What is there better for you to do?