Finding the peaceful path

Yesterday, a friend messaged me on Facebook telling me about the craziness that was happening in her life at the moment. She said “I’m just trying to find a peaceful path through it.” Those words really resonated with me. At the end of the day, that’s all any of us can do.

One of the things I’m really trying to focus on at the moment is acceptance. I’ve spent too long wishing my pregnancy away, engaging in fears and wishing things could have turned out differently. Funnily enough, none of that has bought me any peace.

A key aspect of acceptance is surrendering to reality. We all have the power to make the choice – to struggle against or accept our reality. When we choose to struggle, we create pain and difficulties. When we choose acceptance, we find our peaceful path.

Normally, we choose to struggle from fear – fear of loosing control, fear of the unknown or fear of our inability to cope with whatever may happen. We throw ourselves into the “what ifs” and drown in the worry it causes. Again, there is no peace to be found there.

Choosing the path of least resistance is a challenge in itself. Personally, I find I need to make some kind of sense of what’s happening to me to be able to do that. I’ve been starting to think that maybe the long and difficult journey I’ve been on is all for a reason. Finding and understanding a reason is what I need to accept it.

The more I think about it, the more I can see the value of my experience. There are very few things that are ever handed to us on a silver platter. In fact, the majority of things I’ve received and achieved in life have come from hard work and determination. As humans, we will all be tested at some stage in our lives and the test will be how dedicated we are to achieving our dream and how far we are prepared to push ourselves to succeed.

Sometimes, you have to work really hard for what you want. You may not succeed on your first attempt, and you may have some stumbles along the way. But, the important thing is to pick yourself up and dust yourself off when you do stumble. I’m glad I’ve learnt that lesson because I think it’s one of the most important I can teach Sticky. When she becomes frustrated that she can’t do something, or things aren’t happening as fast as she would like and she wants to throw in the towel, I can remind her that if I had given up, she wouldn't even be here! And for me, just her existence will remind me of that lesson every day for the rest of my life.    

Image by chrisroll

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