Life is terribly deficient in form. Its catastrophes happen in the wrong way and to the wrong people. —Oscar Wilde—
Villains get punished and heroes triumph in well-made plays and books. In life it’s not easy to say who’s who; most of us are heroic sometimes and villainous other
times. Our lives are an uneven mixture of triumph, reward, and hanging-in. Unjust events happen: children die, airplanes crash, rivers flood. The world contains starvation and abundance, violence and gentleness, in its pattern.
The strands of right and wrong, good and bad, are mingled; there’s no untangling them. What contributes to our personal progress is our ability to accept this bewildering complexity. To live wholeheartedly, yet to detach ourselves from the outcomes of our actions is the secret of serenity.
When a catastrophe strikes, we may be unable to turn it over, to find any good in it. We don’t know all there is to know; we see only part of the world’s pattern. Hanging on to a disaster multiplies its effects. We must feel our feelings and let them go.
I’ll work for surrender and acceptance; the days to come will hold brand new possibilities.