Mining the Silver Lining

Mining the Silver Lining

Are you trying to swim upstream? Or are you enjoying floating downstream? Are you struggling against the grain? Or are you gliding with the grain?

How is it that so many of us learn that unless it’s hard it doesn’t count? How do we learn that it must be arduous, and we have to feel exhausted, that it’s a struggle, that it’s difficult, that it’s too much?

And the most important question of all; why do we choose to believe that we are powerless to change that, and call it the Human Condition?

Why is it so easy?

It seems like some people are just lucky. They seem to bounce back from adversity,  They seem unflappable. While the rest of us get stuck in the stinking mud of hard knocks, they turn their hard knocks into opportunities. What the heck.

Lucky.

Yeah, no.  It all has to do with how we judge stuff inside. What we think of as luck is often just looking at any situation and mining the silver lining.

Why do I feel so fortunate?

I can feel overwhelmed by debt, or I can choose to simplify, sell my self-storage unit of unused, extra stuff, make money with my hobby, and enjoy the art of creative living.  Why is it so easy to pay my bills?

I can be driven crazy by a co-worker, or I can find a way to feel compassion for them, consider them my Best Teacher and practice staying calm. or returning to center as quickly as possible. Why is it so easy to keep my center?

I can flip into pissed that my family doesn’t clean up after themselves, or I can set limits and follow through with consequences that they can help me decide on. And then let it go. Why is it so easy to follow through?

I can be exasperated by family situations, or I can choose to either treasure them, or let them go, or not engage. Why is it so easy to support my loved ones?

In the end, it’s we that decides whether we suffer. In the end it’s we that decides whether it’s hard. In the end, it’s we who, regardless of our circumstances, decide on the quality of life we live.

I know it’s annoying as heck, I know it’s scary, too. I know we like to think that it’s not true, but we are responsible for how we feel, for how we experience stuff, for the way our lives go. I am responsible for my resentments. They don’t impact the person I resent, they only eat at me. I am responsible for my suffering. I can choose to sink into it and wallow, or float on top of it. Floating on top isn’t denying it, it’s just not letting my whatever dictate my feelings.

I’m the boss of me. I’m the boss of my feelings. I’m the boss of how I choose to interpret my experience.

How have I changed from being buffeted by the winds of fate to being the captain of my own ship?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2013 all rights reserved 03032013