When life throws curve balls…

How do you overcome? 

At one time or another, we all experience setbacks, disappointments, even devastations and trauma.  When life takes those unexpected turns, you can recoil and crumble, OR you can look at them as sacred moments for inner exploration. Times of crisis offer fertile ground for anyone to explore and express themselves differently.  It’s an opportunity to change your life, to be more authentic to who you want to be.

Stories of people overcoming adversity FASCINATES and FUELS me!  I’m interested in exploring that and shining the light on those everyday heroes who make the world a better place – people who have mastered life’s most difficult challenges.   So, I’m adding a new strand on my blog called “Silver Linings”.  Basically it’s about turning what initially seems ‘bad’ into ‘good’.  I want to share inspiring stories of strength, fight and what the human spirit is capable of in the face of adversity. 

I’m kicking off this new strand with news about an amazing book written by my friend Ellen Schwartz called “Without One Word Spoken”.   It’s coming out at the end of October so I will be writing to tell you more about that very soon. 

In the meantime, if you are going through a rough patch, I leave you with words that I find profound and comforting from 2 very wise and very different men. 

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” 

Viktor E. Frankl, “Man’s Search For Meaning”

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honourably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

— Jellaludin Rumi,
translation by Coleman Barks

For related posts click on the following tags.