“There’s no way to make a dreadful situation pretty. But we can use the pain of it to recognize our sameness with other people.”

Pema Chodron’s Heart Advice for the week really hit home today.  Pema says, “There’s no way to make a dreadful situation pretty. But we can use the pain of it to recognize our sameness with other people.”

I went through a particularly painful experience over the weekend which I used as an opportunity to do some soul searching.  While I will go far out of my way to prevent any pain (including aligning my cereal boxes to ensure nothing goes wrong!), I paused and gave thanks that this pain helped to remind me of what is good and right in my life (and to not take it for granted). And to use the pain to learn and grow.  

Pema’s advice for the week ends with, “Whatever usually drags us down and causes us to withdraw into ourselves is actually the stepping-stone for awakening our compassion and for contacting the vast, unbiased mind of the warrior.” It felt really good to exercise the ability to be resilient and grab the opportunity to do some growing.