When you have what feels like a great difficulty, when you feel in great need, when you are, at least for the moment, at the end of your rope, say something like this to yourself, for it is very likely that this is what I would say to you:

“What if this intolerable situation changes tomorrow? Can I live with it until tomorrow? Will I be all right with it until tomorrow?”

You would feel tremendous relief. Oh, yes, you could live with it until tomorrow. In fact, you would feel as if the intolerable situation already had been taken care of. The situation, whatever it may be, would no longer be intolerable, for tomorrow it would be on its way out. Your perception of it is already on its way out.

After that, say to yourself:

“What if this intolerable situation would be taken care of in a week? Can I manage until then? Can I be all right with it for a week?”

And, oh, yes, you could.

By a flip of the switch in your mind, the intolerableness is gone. What has changed, beloveds? What has changed is your attachment to the difficulty or the difficulty’s attachment to you. The talons that clutched your heart let go. You felt their letting go. And it is you, in your relief, that released the terrible hold the situation had on you. You, your conception of the situation.

It is a fact, proven time and time again, that difficulties do ease. The intensity does not stay forever. It will go. You will let it go. You will reduce it to its proper size. You will. You have. Trauma fades. Even the intensity of the death of a loved one fades. Once again you are able to sleep at night. The longing may not leave, yet it will not always dominate you. No matter how deep and vast your devotion, the depth of your response to perceived separation will ease.

Even if you are unjustly imprisoned, the initial anger and sense of deprivation will fade. You will make a truce. It is not the life you wanted or deserved, and, yet, you still have life. And even if you are sentenced to death, by law, illness, accident, it is not intolerable. It is only intolerable as you say so.

You are greater than suffering. You. You are. What happens around you, what happens to you, is not the sum of your life.

Wherever you are, there is a purpose. It may not be your intended purpose, and, yet, there is purpose, and the purpose is yours.

Beloveds, you do not have to kowtow to every event, not even to every tragically-perceived event. Events are not to be the master of you. You are greater than events. And you are made for more than fear, heartbreak and so forth.

You may feel that you are steel being forged on the anvil. In truth, you are the blacksmith. You are not a mere product. You are something. You are someone. Life is not a furnace, and, yet, life tempers you. Be temperate, beloveds, and not so hot under the collar, not so quick to take life as a sufferance, not so quick to take life as a debt you are paying off. Under all circumstances, you are a beautiful child of God. In life or in death, you survive. There is no end to you. There is an end to suffering. Beloveds, suffering does not even have to be insufferable. There is no loss of life. There is no loss. Do not lose heart. Gain heart.